The absolute star of the show is Rami Malek. His portrayal of the flamboyant and brilliant Freddie Mercury is a tour-de-force performance, sweaty and magnetic, much like the man himself. You'd think having extra teeth shoved in his mouth to give him Freddie's overbite would make the whole performance feel forced, but anyone who has seen Malek's intensity on Mr. Robot knows that this is a man who gives his heart and soul to every performance and won't let the audience down. He is mostly lip-syncing to the music (no actor could be expected to do justice to Freddie's four-octave vocal range) but forget his lips, his whole body is thrumming to the music from start to finish.
The rest of the cast do good work as well, showcasing the variety of personalities that were around Freddie and how they dealt with his mercurial (pun intended!) temperament. Lucy Boynton is wonderful as Mary, the love of his life, who gives the man the support he needs but also has to deal with occasional unwarranted control and jealousy. Aidan Gillen and Tom Hollander are wonderful as the band's manager and lawyer, respectively, two businessmen who nonetheless get carried away by the band's brilliance and back up their wild schemes, even if that involves making an "operatic" rock album. Allen Leech has the awful job of portraying Paul Prenter, the man who ruins everything for Freddie and the band in a Disney villain-esque fashion. And Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joe Mazzello do a nice job as Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon, Freddie's fellow misfits who make up Queen. Lee and Hardy particularly get a fair amount of screentime, which makes one wonder if that's because May and Taylor were the film's creative and music consultants.
The heavy involvement of the Queen band members behind the scenes was the cause for concern for my friend Katie, who, unlike me, actually knows about the band as opposed to just loving their music. For such a die-hard music fan, the movie is far too cavalier in re-writing the band's history to suit dramatic purpose, and is heavily sympathetic to the other members by blaming their woes on Freddie's desire to pursue a solo career. Indeed, even though I know nothing about the real-life goings-on, the movie felt incredibly Hollywood, with a screenplay by Anthony McCarten that traffics in every possible cliche. The way that characters talk or express themselves feels like something out of a Rolling Stone article about the band, not something that humans would actually say in conversation. The movie's best moments are when you focus on the music - either when it's being performed on stage or arduously put together in the studio where poor Roger must scream "Galileo" at higher and higher pitches until it's a wonder his vocal cords don't snap.
Bryan Singer is the purported director of this movie but he quit a few months into the making of the film for many undisclosed reasons. The movie looks very odd in places, with cheap special effects or poor cinematography that takes you out of the film for a bit. But I found myself willing to overlook everything as long as I got to see Queen perform at Live Aid. The final twenty minutes of the film recreate that iconic concert and it gladdens the soul to see all these songs we've watched being put together culminate in one miraculous performance that gives you goosebumps even more than thirty years later.
All I wanted when I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody was to watch Freddie Mercury strut the stage. Rami Malek strutted like no man has strutted before and my heart was glad. It is an incredible performance in an otherwise so-so film, and there's certainly something wrong with you if you don't immediately go to YouTube and start watching that Live Aid concert. Rami Malek is somebody to love indeed.
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