Long live the King
AUSTIN BUTLER IS A HIP-SHAKING SUPERSTAR IN EXUBERANT ELVIS BIOPIC
ELVIS (12A) HHHII REVIEW BY DAMON SMITH
WISE men say only fools rush in. Baz Luhrmann, Australian director of Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge!, appears to sing from the same hymn sheet because his visually extravagant biopic of Elvis Presley has a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on with more than two-and-a-half hours of breathlessly choreographed musical performances, impeccable costume design and nostalgia-drenched spectacle.
Austin Butler delivers a scintillating, sexually charged performance as the jump-suited showman from Tupelo, Mississippi.
Presley’s rise and fall is narrated by manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), an invidious presence at the mercy of gambling habits, who by his own voiceover admission could be considered “the villain of this here story”.
When we first see Elvis as a boy (played by Chaydon Jay), he is intoxicated by gospel church music and feels the spirit of a pastor, who sermonises, “When things are too dangerous to say, sing!”
Presley takes this lesson to heart as he witnesses America’s bitter racial divisions while continuing to publicly support performers like BB King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Little Richard (Alton Mason).
He falls under the spell of Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge), builds a home at Graceland for his parents Vernon (Richard Roxburgh) and
Gladys
(Helen
Thomson) and slowly falls victim to Colonel Parker’s manipulations, rejecting a lucrative international tour because of security concerns stemming from highprofile assassinations including Martin Luther King Jr and President John F Kennedy.
You can’t help falling in love with Butler’s sweat-soaked embodiment of a socially conscious showman, who believed in lending his voice to the youth of the era and effecting change through his music.
As portrayed by Hanks with a sing-song accent of intentionally curious European origin, Parker is an odious, opportunistic parasite who dazzles the Presley family with the promise of riches then turns his star talent against those he should trust.
“If you don’t do the business, the business will do you,” singer BB King warns good friend Presley before the true price of fame has reduced the charismatic dreamer to a physically exhausted husk, unable to fulfil his Las Vegas residency without an injection backstage from a doctor.
Elvis embodies Luhrmann’s film-making ethos of razzledazzling excess, energising each beautifully crafted frame with Mandy Walker’s ravishing cinematography, hyperkinetic camerawork and sumptuous period detail.
Glimpsing Presley’s story from Parker’s perspective creates a narrative tug of war between the film’s most emotionally complex and colourful characters. The script can’t satisfyingly resolve that conflict – certain aspects are glossed over even with a luxurious 160-minute running time. Suspicious minds won’t be soothed.
In cinemas Friday