Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

This biography of Queen and its flamboyant lead singer Freddy Mercury is at best a mix bag. The overall acting and production value is top notched. Rami Malek who has won the Best Actor award from practically all the major movie awards (most recently being the coveted Academy Award), nailed it in his portrayal of Freddy Mercury.

Nevertheless, I was still left wanting by the end of the 2 hours 15 minutes running time. I figured what could possibly be one of contributing factor here was that the film makers made a PG-13 movie for a man whose life was anything but PG-13. As such many aspects which dealt with drugs, sex, foul language, gay relationship etc, were dealt with in a toned down and low impact manner. This approach merely makes it frustrating for the viewer as we get the feeling somethings had been held back and we had to fill in the blanks ourselves.

Another thing that I was not satisfied with was the lack of details on what made Freddy such a great artist. How did Freddy become that good? What inspired him and drove his passion? Events in his life were merely presented in as a matter of fact manner giving us no clues for example, why his chose his name Mercury? Why the name Queen? When did he realised he could sing and write songs so well? His family members were presented like cardboard cartoon characters and could not possibly have been responsible for his talents. So we are expected to just accept that Freddy Mercury was born with his talents. In comparison, an episode of TV's reality singing contest shows like The X Factor have often shared with us a contestant's background on how they first began singing and where they get their inspiration from in a concise and intimate manner. Here, we are still left wondering after over two hours.

Finally, I have to rave over the final act which was the reenactment of Queen's performance during the Live AiDS concert in 1985. It was like watching a mini concert and went on uninterrupted and in real time for about 20 minutes. Ironically I found this part of the movie most effective and engaging. The ending felt a little unfinished as there seem to be more in Freddy Mercury's life to tell beyond 1985 until his death in 1991. Perhaps the movie makers were thinking ahead and wanted to leave room for heaven forbid, a sequel!!