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| Taron Egerton (Left) as Sir Elton John (Right) |
Sir Elton John (original name Reginald Dwight) is a British rock music legend, and his musical prowess has been put on par with other legendary rock stars such as Freddie Mercury, Sir Paul McCartney, and David Bowie. Recently, he has announced that he would be retiring from touring to spend more time with his family and has begun his Farewell Tour: Farewell Yellow Brick Road. Apart from his musical career, he has also appeared in the 2017 film Kingsman: The Golden Circle as himself, which is where he met and befriended actor Taron Egerton, who would later go on to portray Elton himself in the biopic which I will be discussing today.
To begin with, I was genuinely impressed by the overall acting from the entire cast. Taron Egerton not only LOOKED like Elton John, but I loved that the movie showed all the parts of Elton's lifestyle and didn't shy away from the rougher portions like the drug abuse, suicide attempts, and even his promiscuous sexual life, and I really respect that Elton, as executive producer actually made sure to paint a rather accurate picture of his personal life, warts and all, showing the sex, his addiction to cocaine, his suicide attempts, and finally his triumphant return. Egerton really showed all the emotions Elton was going through amazingly, and he made the movie an excruciatingly emotional experience to sit through. It was rather depressing watching Elton John suffer through one horrible human being after another and never finding the courage to admit that he needed help until it could have been too late (a suicide attempt and a heart attack that got more or less ignored was two disasters too much), and the fact that none of that is fabricated to add dramatic tension (all of that IS real) was really messed up.
Apart from Taron Egerton, the other three breakout stars I think were Richard Madden as Elton's manager/lover John Reid, Jamie Bell as Elton's longtime friend & lyric writer Bernie Taupin, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Elton's distant mother Sheila. Even though Madden was playing an abusive, cruel, manipulative human being, he was so damn charming and charismatic the rest of the time that while I definitely hated him throughout the film, I also wanted to see more of the character. Bell and Egerton seriously have an amazing onscreen chemistry and I'm not sure if they've acted together before, but they really feel like best friends. Bryce Dallas Howard is sort of known for playing very easily hated characters (Example being The Help), and she was absolutely brilliant in this. She played Elton's cold, uncaring, perhaps even emotionally abusive in some sense, mother (who really was like that in real life) amazingly, especially with the extremely hurtful line "You’ll never be loved properly"; and yet, she also portrays a softer side with that line as well. This is shown even more when Elton attempts suicide later and she is genuinely in tears, concerned for her son, suggesting that maybe Shelia is a more deeper, complex person then we see.
Finally, I'd like to talk about the song choices in this film. As far as I'm aware, all of the music in this film were Elton John songs, but it was sung by the cast. All of the song choices were perfect for each of the scene they were used in, and I really liked that it was in a musical format (mainly because I really love musicals) but each of the songs added more depth and emotion into those scenes because it felt like Elton was narrating his life with his songs (a rather strange choice since it was Bernie Taupin who wrote the lyrics, not Elton). My favourite one were no doubt "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and "I'm Still Standing" because of the sheer raw emotion you can hear in those particular songs that didn't exist as much in the originals.
Overall, Rocketman was a great movie. I really loved the cast, the songs, and I really respect the fact that they portrayed every part of Elton's life, warts and all, with no censorship or "sugarcoating" them like they did with Bohemian Rhapsody. Taron Egerton may not sound EXACTLY like Elton John, but he comes damn close and having Taron's less trained voice sing them worked much better to convey the emotions. I can definitely see an Oscar nomination coming for Taron (although he'll have a rather heavy competition this year with Joaquin Phoenix and Tom Hanks also deserving one). Rocketman gets a well-deserved 5/5.
You know how people say laughter can sometimes be the best medicine? Well I think it's time to put a smile on someone's face by reviewing a certain movie about a clown (and it's NOT a Stephen King movie). As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!
