Bohemian Rhapsody

out 16 february Digital HD 4 march DVD, BD, 4K extras Extended scene, Featurettes

film extras

Like The Greatest Showman before it, this Queen biopic was the crowdpleasing music flick the critics couldn’t dethrone in 2018. Fans have been having a Bohemian ball to the box-office tune of $798m since October – some haul in franchiseheavy times. Factor in those Golden Globes, and Freddie Mercury’s posthumous pull seems unstoppable.

Bo Rhap’s success came in the face of both off-stage controversies (Dexter Fletcher replacing troubled director Bryan Singer) and on-screen blunders. True, the gags (that Wayne’s World Easter egg) and dialogue have a stiffness, as does the by-numbers narrative. The rushed plot condenses eras clumsily; worse, the arguable implication that Mercury’s sexuality sired his torments sours the taste.

And yet... viewed as a loose rise/ wobble/redemption riff on a choppy career, Rhapsody lands some killer blows. Rami Malek embodies Mercury’s strutting front with dynamite charisma, even as he trains a laser beam on his anxieties. A broad-strokes flavour of Queen’s band chemistry emerges in warm sketches from Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor) and Gwilym Lee (Brian May), while the breathless plot delivers the odd disarming set-piece.

If the ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ skit amuses, the Live Aid climax is fuelled by Malek’s guns-blazing take on Mercury’s ability to ‘play’ a crowd (and extras offer the full 22-minute performance). Rhapsody may be a little silhouetto of a character study, but its celebration of old-school showmanship hits the right notes. Kevin Harley