Review: Bohemian Rhapsody

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

Behinds the scenes drama, a director fired, a stellar performance. This film was in danger of being dead on arrival. Director Bryan Singer has completely gone off the rails by the sound of it, and his firing here, coupled with his production company (Bad Hat Harry) losing its partnership with Fox Studios, it might be the end of the road for Singer. I was a big fan of Singer after The Usual Suspects. He also was a driving force behind of my favourite TV Shows, House MD. But I started to lose respect for Singer when I read that he blamed the lack of box office of Superman Returns on star Brandon Routh’s performance, despite the fact that Routh did exactly what Singer asked him to do. Since then, there have been a number of rumours and stories surfacing about the behaviour of Singer.

But the big question is does Bohemian Rhapsody work? The answer is, in some areas.

Does it deliver on the music? Yes. Does it deliver the Freddie? Yes. Is it a great movie? No.

Sadly, the film is poorly paced, terribly edited and over long. That’s not to say its terrible as a film. It’s certainly worth your money to see it, unless you don’t like Queen, in which case, this certainly won’t be for you.

We kick off the story with Freddie working as a baggage handler at Heathrow airport. We get some quick home life moments, then we’re seeing the band ‘Smile’ perform and then lose their lead singer, all so Freddie can jump in and the next thing you know we’re discussing their second album. It’s all very chopped up and messy and doesn’t flow very well as a narrative.

There are some great scenes of the recording and experimental process along the way, and the recording of Bohemian Rhapsody is amusing and also fascinating.

The film quickly moves through Queen’s success and after a lot of fast paced time shifting movements, the film suddenly grinds to a halt as Freddie’s lifestyle catches up to him.

The film works mostly due to the performance of star Rami Malek who perfectly captures Mercury both on and off stage. He is surrounded by great performances from the rest of the band, with Gwilym Lee uncanny as guitarist Brian May, Ben Hardy as drummer and high note singer Roger Taylor, as well as a good performance from Lucy Boynton as Mary Austin, Freddie’s first love and lifelong friend. Mike Myers pops up as well in a funny cameo.

The performance recreations are amazing, helped largely to the availability of master tracks of Queen recordings, allowing the isolation of each part. Malek is very good in mimicking the stage persona of Freddie, although at no stage does his performance come off as a simple imitation.

But all of this is somewhat soured by a messy narrative that despite the awesome music, can’t find a rhythm. Mixed styles occur, timelines shift randomly, and every scene feels chock full of edits, perhaps in order to cut around problems caused by Singer’s issues, or just bad editing choices. The constant editing makes the film much more tiring to watch than it should be, and I actually had sore eyes, a headache and motion sickness after the film.

This film won’t go down as one of the all-time great biopics, but it is certainly a cut above a lot of them. The cinema is a great viewing place for this film so get out and see it on the big screen. Malek is certainly going to be fighting for an Oscar, perhaps against Bradley Cooper for a Star is Born. Personally, I wouldn’t want to pick between them.

The five bearded questions:

1. Was it worth a cinema trip? Yes

2. Would I See It Again at the Cinema? No.

3. Would I buy it on Blu-ray: (only films I really love get bought these days) No 4. Do I Recommend people see it? Yes.

5. Any cheese/ Disney style bullshit?: (such as jokes wedged in at serious moments, because fun!). There is some humour, and some of it is a little forced, but overall, it works.