‘Rocketman’ is a surreal spin on Elton John story
“Rocketman” opens on a scene of Taron Egerton storming down a hallway in a bright orange jumpsuit topped by devil’s horns and wings, barging in on a support group and announcing his arrival with, “My name is Elton Hercules John and I’m an alcoholic and a cocaine addict and a sex addict ...”
As he begins to tell the story of his childhood with a monster of a father who snaps “Don’t be soft” at his son for requesting a hug, he bolts outside into the midst of a full-on musical production of “The Bitch is Back” with another
actor playing preteen Elton.
And with that, director Dexter Fletcher establishes “Rocketman” as a bit of a musical fantasy – as filtered
through the cracked lens of John as the film’s unreliable narrator. It’s an approach that affords the director and screenwriter Lee Hall the cover they needed to play fast and loose with what actually happened in favor of serving the greater emotional truths at the heart of the story.
This may require a further suspension of disbelief than some audience members are willing to swallow. If the sight of John performing songs before he’d had a chance to write them sounds like it could be a deal-breaker, this may not be the film for you.
But give in to the fantasy and it’s a fun and fascinating ride that offsets moments of real pathos (from heartbreaking portraits of childhood rejection to him literally hitting bottom in his swimming pool) with scenes that definitely capture the exhilaration of becoming Elton John (a name that was not, as the film suggests, inspired by a picture of John Lennon on a Beatles poster).
John himself served as executive producer, and as he explains it in the film’s production notes, “This movie is about when I started to become famous. It was an extraordinary and surreal time, and that’s how I wanted the film to be.”
It’s certainly surreal, from a scene of the audience levitating in slow motion to “Crocodile Rock” at the Troubadour to John soaring through the air at Dodgers Stadium.
It helps that Egerton so masterfully rises to the challenge of inhabiting the role in ways that go beyond a certain more-than-passing physical resemblance to the man (although that clearly doesn’t hurt) or the fact that he does his own singing and handles the choreography with ease.
He’s got his mannerisms down and really throws himself into the more flamboyant side of John’s onstage persona. But perhaps more to the point, he conveys the emotional essence of the moment, whether that calls more for petulant pouting and throwing of fits or something far more devastating.
Fletcher does a brilliant job of capturing the way the singer’s life has been defined by several key relationships, from his parents withholding their love and support to the healthier bond he was able to form with writing partner Bernie Taupin (as brought to life by an outstanding Jamie Bell).
The chemistry between those two is undeniable and deeply moving.
But the one relationship the movie keeps returning to is the one between the singer and the inner child he reconnects with in one of the film’s most emotional scenes.
That inner child is even there to greet him at the bottom of the swimming pool, playing piano, when he tries to end it all during a party at his mansion after catching his lover/manager John Reid (a convincingly callous Richard Madden) with another man.
There’s no shortage of dark, self-destructive, self-loathing behavior to get through here. John’s addictions and dysfunctional relationships are at the heart of who he is. But Fletcher, the man who was brought in to finish “Bohemian Rhapsody” after original director Bryan Singer was fired, finds his Queen at Live Aid moment in the perfect happy ending, “I’m Still Standing.”
It’s a loving recreation of the campy music video, John celebrating his survivor status by defiantly proclaiming, “Don’t you know I’m still standing better than I ever did?/ Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid / And I’m still standing after all this time / Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind.”
Of course, he wasn’t really clean and sober for another seven years after releasing “I’m Still Standing.” But it says what the filmmakers need it to say. And it works like a charm.