Rocketman (2019)

Rocketman is being described in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) as "A musical fantastical human story of Elton John's breakthrough years ...". After watching this biopic, I would single out the word "fantastical" (is there such a word in English?) to describe this. The film does play a lot like a fantasy movie, with its Broadway musical styled song and dance numbers, and the glittering glamour portrayed on the stage by Elton. Like any fairy tale, we need the villians and the hero. Here, both Elton's mother and father, as well as his manager, John Reid, are the bad guys, and we are given plenty of opportune moments to loathe them. Elton himself of course comes out as the great guy with super talents, who loses his way to drugs and loneliness, but still manages to pull himself up and makes things right by the film's end. The end credits' montage of photos suggest a "happily ever after" ending with one of the photos showing Elton with his husband David Furnish and kids with the caption "25 years ago he met his husband David and is finally loved. Properly. Elton is retiring from touring to spend more time raising their sons Zachary and Elijah".

The real Bernie Taupin (left) and Elton John (right) in this photo taken in 1971

Taron Egerton did a great job playing Elton. He also sang all the songs himself which added further authenticity to his performance. However, I would say that all the rest of the characters in his story appear here as very one dimensional as the movie offer no depth in their personalities. My main quibble is how Elton's long time friend and music partner Bernie Taupin (played by Jamie Bell) was portrayed (or rather more appropriately, NOT portrayed) here. Bernie wrote the lyrics to most of Elton John's songs. One can say that his contribution to Elton's phenomenon success is at least equal to Elton's music. Yet, his character is portrayed here as just in the background and his influence never emphasized. Indeed, it feels a bit strange and misleading to hear how appropriate the lyrics of the songs seem, as if they were written by Elton himself, to reflect the various stages of his life, when in fact we all know it was Bernie who came up with the lyrics. The many familiar songs being used throughout the movie to support these moments were not presented in the same chronological order of when they were actually written versus the timing of the events. I have to admit that this caused a bit of distraction for me which in turn prevented me from fully enjoying the movie and its music unequivocally. Perhaps it demands a second viewing for me to better appreciate this, as I do so want to like this film better than I did ... I found that, as with Bohemian Rhapsody, I am left with little appreciation of where Elton John got his talents and inspiration. It is presented as if he was born with it as a some sort of child prodigy who can just play a tune on the piano just by listening to the music. It is also not clear what actually drove Elton to the world of sex, drugs and alcohol, and even more baffling, what was the turning point that drove him to seek help! Frankly I think the biopic did an injustice here as an enlightenment here could help inspire people to do the same and help heal themselves. Perhaps in another biopic. For now, we have to be contend with Rocketman ...