Watching ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ reminded me the first time I heard the song played on the radio. It was weird, long winding but refreshing. For me it was something I had never heard before and something completely new to my musical palette. And as a kid a found a bunch of men in a rock band called ‘Queen’ very funny.
Fast forward to the present, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ the movie is killing at both the box office and the award season. Despite its controversy with the Director’s role in the age of #MeToo, there was no denying that the movie struck a chord in a lot of people’s heart.
I personally missed it when it was in the cinemas. I was going through a Netflix phase and kind of fell off the cinema radar. However, another long haul flight means another catch up with all the movies I missed through the small blue screen at the back of the seat in front of me.
The movie opened and closed in a come around way accounting the rise and fall of, well not Queen, but Freddie Mercury as Queen’s front man. Rami Malek of the Mr Robot TV series fame led an outstanding cast bringing to life the many important moments of Queen to us once again. There were initial discussions about whether Rami looks the part but by now with all the nominations and wins he got, that was put to rest. I personally found Rami’s performance extremely enigmatic, which reflects what I read about Freddie Mercury throughout the years in different coverage after his death (I have never really followed Queen and its career at that time as I responded to the music not its artist). Sometimes when actors perform like that you felt they are too try hard but that did not come through with Rami’s Freddie. The arrogant front and the vulnerability deep inside was well balanced. The scene where he called his ex-wife who lives next door just to quench the loneliness inside him at the height of his career was devastatingly realistic.
Allan Leech as the possessive lover with a scorn was a fair delivery. Although I personally still like him in ‘Downton Abbey’ better. It is not that he did not do a good job in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It was just because everyone else’s presence in the movie was corroded by Freddie Mercury’s presence. This was the same with the band members. They were by no means unimportant (Brian May created the ‘We Will Rock You’ beats, which after all these years are still one of the most catchy and engaging beats in music), but Freddie’s larger than life and over the top lifestyle just kept eclipsing all the other people around him, including the woman whom he was crazily in love and could not let go of. Lucy Boynton as Mary, his ex-wife was one of the outstanding supporting cast in the film. Her subtleness in a lot of scenes through a glance or even a sigh elevated her sadness and self-destructive symbiotic relationship with Freddie in the most natural manner. It was a pity that we couldn’t see more of her. Another one worth mentioning was the surprising turn of Mike Myers as Ray Foster. It was initially beyond recognisable to me but once you noticed, his image just got stuck in your head.
It is a Queen movie, so it is given that the soundtrack is full of Queen tracks, from the titled ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ to ‘We Are The Champions’ and ‘Radio Gaga’. They are nostalgic yet present. Seriously not a lot of songs can withstand the weathering of time and still feel fresh after decades. Queen managed to give us some iconic rhythm that even today when I heard them in the movie, I would go home and dig them out from my iTunes collection and listen to them again. For me it was also fun to see how they were incubated, fictional or not.
Since it is about the rise of Queen, the movie is predominantly nostalgic 80s and sometimes made me feel ‘how could adults at that time think those outfits are trendy and good looking?’ But I guess every generation had their pet love and fails fashion-wise. But for me it was quite truthful, at least from my limited memory.
In all for me, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was a very engaging experience. I never had once looked at my phone for the time, despite being trapped on a flight in the dark. I enjoyed every single moment of it, but probably for some you might enjoy it better if you are truly into Queen and its music.
