‘Real love’s hard to come by. So you find a way to cope without it...’
I’ve mainly steered clear of the current rash of music biopics. They stray too close to musical territory for my liking. I flat-out don’t like Queen so Bohemian Rhapsody was never going to be for me. I skipped the Bowie biopic after reading the torrent of terrible reviews that the film received. And it’s taken me four years to get around to Rocketman, despite the fact I am a big fan of both the film’s subject, Elton John, and the actor playing him, Taron Egerton…
Charting the tumultuous journey from young Reginald Dwight (Matthew Illesley) turning into global superstar Elton John (Egerton), Rocketman does stray uncomfortably close to being a jukebox musical at times, but a supporting cast made up of such luminaries as Jamie Bell, Stephen Graham and Richard Madden ensures that Dexter Fletcher’s film stays just the right side of compelling.
All of John’s greatest hits feature here with ‘Tiny Dancer’ and the title track the most affecting, but Fletcher and his writer Lee Hall wisely devote as much time to John’s hectic personal life as they do to his music. Crucially, this is handled in a way that is sensitive and affecting rather than sensationalist or gawdy. Egerton, a fine actor, captures all sides of the icon he portrays here – catty, prone to tantrums, but also a genius whose natural talent couldn’t be dimmed by his various addictions.
I was sceptical of Rocketman going into it and while it hasn’t changed my mind about musicals, it did win me over in the end. An undeniable success.