The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
QUEEN STORY ‘BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY’ IS A CHAMPION
Cleveland Public Theatre’s ‘Everything Is Okay’ a mixed bag
Freddie Mercury possessed an incredible voice, a unique voice, an unforgettable voice. ¶ You don’t have to be the world’s biggest fan of Queen, the band he fronted in the 1970s and ‘80s, to appreciate that — or to recognize that the British rock act recorded some unbelievable songs back in the day, including hits “Killer Queen,” “Somebody to Love,” “Another One Bites the Dust” and, of course, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” ¶ That voice and those songs are celebrated with such gusto and enthusiasm in the spectacular new film “Bohemian Rhapsody” — powered largely by a terrific performance from Emmy Award-winning “Mr. Robot” star Rami Malek as the late Mercury — that any problems that come along with a biopic such as this one easily can be forgiven. ¶ “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a kind of magic.
The mood is set in the opening seconds, the familiar 20th Century Fox studio’s well-known fanfare given a rock-guitar treatment that’s followed immediately by snippets of Mercury’s voice and crowd noise.
Soon, we see Malek’s Freddie from behind, shedding a jacket and taking the stage in a tightfitting pair of jeans and an equally tight tank top. The setting is London’s Wembley Stadium in 1985. Live Aid. Mercury’s late-career performance that stole the show at the massive, two-concert charity endeavor.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” eventually will return to Live Aid, but it first takes us back to 1970, before Zanzibar-born Freddie Bulsara — who, much to his father’s displeasure, has stopped using his given first name, Farrokh — was anyone. After attending a show by the band Smile, he meets a few of the guys from the band, including guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee), telling them he has written a few songs himself and perhaps could be of use to the band.
“You’re two minutes too late,” May tells him. “Our lead singer just quit.”
“What about me?” Freddie asks.
Brian scoffs at him, saying someone with his terrible teeth will never be a rock star.
And then Brian hears Freddie sing.
Soon enough, the Freddie-fronted band, now called Queen, is selling its van to pay for the recording of an album. During the recording process, we see the extremely creative Freddie instructing sound engineers to try this and that, the kind of experimentation that led to many of Queen’s recordings being fascinatingly produced.
After some initial success — including a smash hit in the still-irresistible “Killer Queen” — Freddie announces to a largely befuddled record company executive who wants the band to repeat their winning formula that they can “do better” than that song. Their next album, he proclaims, will be titled “A Night at the Opera” and will be a wild and inventive melding of genres.
After that album is recorded — at a farm, when the band sequesters itself — that exec refuses to make the epic, bizarre and opera-influenced “Bohemian Rhapsody” the lead single, saying that, at six minutes, it’s too long, that, in his business, six minutes is “forever.”
“I pity your wife if anything over six minutes is forever,” Freddie responds.
(That record exec, by the way, is played by an unrecognizable Mike Myers, “Bohemian Rhapsody” making a subtle homage to 1992’s “Wayne’s World,” which thoroughly celebrated the song in a memorable scene.)
Meanwhile, Freddie has his own romantic issues. Proclaiming her to be the love of his life, he proposes to his girlfriend, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton of “Murder on the Orient Express”). She says yes, and he insists she promise to never take off the ring he’s given her.
Of course, time will reveal to her — and, eventually, the world — that Freddie is gay. That obviously will be an issue for the couple, as will the film’s ultimate villain, Paul Prenter (Allen Leech of “Downton Abbey”), who becomes Freddie’s personal manager and lover.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” plays like an album with two sides; the first hour is a whirlwind of musical and emotional energy, while the second is a more soulful, melancholic affair. Eventually, of course, Freddie will contract AIDS, which will lead to his death in 1991 at the tragically young age of 45.
That both of these sides of “Bohemian Rhapsody” are so engrossing is incredible considering the behindthe-scenes drama the production endured. Although he retained the directing credit, Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects,” several “X-Men” films) was fired fairly late into the shoot. Although reports had surfaced of conflict between him and Malek, all involved seem to be sticking to the narrative that Singer wanted the film to go on a hiatus to allow him to deal with some family issues but the studio refused. He was replaced by “Eddie the Eagle” director Dexter Fletcher to finish the shoot, Fletcher getting an executive producer credit for his troubles.
Even if he didn’t conduct the entire cinematic symphony, this is the best film Singer has made since “The Usual Suspects.” Working from an excellent screenplay by Anthony McCarten (“Darkest Hour,” “The Theory of Everything”), with a story by McCarten and Peter Morgan (“The Crown,” “The Queen”), Singer pushes all the right buttons with this warts-and-all look at Mercury.
And, again, Malek is sublime as Freddie, capturing Mercury’s eccentricities, his outrageousness, his flamboyance, his temper and, especially, his brilliance. He really helps sell Freddie’s journey from a longhaired musician comfortable in women’s clothing to a man who prefers skintight shirts and pants and who cuts off his hair and grows a thick mustache — a look that takes aback one of his bandmates during a humorous moment.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” captures all the inevitable tension between Freddie and his band mates, both creative and financial. Yes, this is expected stuff, but it is fairly well done.
Thankfully, through all the drama in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the music of Queen is never far away. We see the bassline for “Another One Bites the Dust” be introduced to the band by John “Deacy” Deacon (Joe Mazzello, “Jurassic Park”) and the unmistakable STOMP-STOMP-CLAP intro to “We Will Rock You” conjured up by Brian — Lee (“Jamestown”), by the way, convincing you he may in fact be a younger version of May throughout the film.
Other hits, such as “Under Pressure” by Queen and David Bowie, at least are used in the film.
A note here or there is flat — a press-conference scene late in the affair is overly dramatic — but for the most part “Bohemian Rhapsody” is harmonious.
And when it finally gets back to “Live Aid,” the film earns the extended re-creation of Queen’s set that it gives us. What might have felt indulgent feels almost necessary after the journey to return us to that point.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” thoroughly — and passionately — reminds us that Mercury was somebody to love.