Rami Malek Dazzles in So-So Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Directed by Brian Singer

20^th Century Fox, 134 minutes, PG-13 (mild language, sexual situations)

★★★

Here’s part three of catching up with Oscar-winning films I didn’t see in the theater. Bohemian Rhapsody won four Academy Awards, including Rami Malek’s Best Oscar statue for his portrayal of rock legend Freddie Mercury.

A disclaimer: I was never a fan of Queen. I knew the basics of Freddie Mercury’s life and it was impossible not to hear Queen’s hit singles; “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” were staples in ballparks and hockey arenas, for example. But I dodged disco and glam rock in the mid-70s and ‘80s, both of which I dislike to this day. In my mind, pop-rock went off the deep end when The Who released Quadrophenia (1973).

This is prelude to admitting that I am unqualified to say how true or not Malek was to the historical Freddie Mercury. I will say, though, that of all the actors nominated for Best Actor, Malek deserved to win the Oscar. (Or at least I think so, as I’m yet to see Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born.) His was a strong portrayal of an Indian-Brit* trying to fit into worlds in which he is by nature an outcast. He was a short man with funny teeth, dark-skinned, a risk-taker in the conservative music industry, and gay. Malek shows us the allure of trying to go mainstream, the frustration of being rebuffed, and the costs associated with defying expectations.

We meet Farrokh Bulsara­–Mercury’s birth name­–in 1970, when he is a Heathrow baggage handler who goes clubbing at night and admires a band called Smile. First anachronism: No club bands had sound this clean in 1970. When Smile’s lead singer abruptly quits, Farrokh belts out a tune in the parking lot and is hired as the new vocalist. Anachronism two: Bands don’t audition singers as they are packing up a van. These are movie fairy tales, but we get the idea that it was a good idea to give the “Paki”** a shot.

As in most rock dramatizations, time is elided and liberties are taken with how the band’s rise unfolded, but in the film “Freddie” pushes the band to think big. He also acquires a girlfriend/fiancé, Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), although I gather this didn’t happen the way it’s portrayed either. In the wink of a camera’s eye–though it actually took three years–Smile has been renamed Queen, Farrokh has changed his legal name to Freddie Mercury, Queen has a string of hits, and wings off to North America, where Freddie begins to ponder his sexual preferences as he eyes beefcake at a truckstop. The last of these seems far-fetched, but maybe that’s how it went down.

In 1975, two big events take place. First, Freddie sticks to his guns and insists that “Bohemian Rhapsody” should be released as a single, even though his record label hates the song and claims it’s too long for radio play. Second, Freddie tells Mary he’s bisexual and she (allegedly) tells him he’s actually gay and breaks off their engagement. Director Brian Singer is a controversial figure who is fending off numerous allegations of gay sexual abuse of minors. Such charges are nightmares for gay men seeking mainstream acceptance, and Singer didn’t do them any other favors when he presents Freddie’s immersion into a gay lifestyle as concomitant with things unraveling for Queen.

Again, time elision is the culprit. Queen acquires a new manager, Paul Prenter (Allen Leech, Tom in Downton Abbey), who is a huckster and Freddie’s lover. Prenter is presented as holding a Svengali-like hold over Freddie, who descends into an abyss marked by reckless sex, drugs, non-stop parties, and fights with the band over missed rehearsals and recording sessions. He becomes–and I use the terms advisedly–bitchy and swishy. Singer presents all of this is in quickstep, though what happened after 1975 actually unfolded over 9 years. When Prenter dropped the ball and almost locked Queen out of the 1984 Live-Aid concert, he was fired and went on the talk show circuit to out Mercury publicly. It didn’t matter, as Queen slayed the London Live-Aid audience and Freddie took up with a more stable lover, Jim Hutton (Aaron McCusker). There was an outpouring of grief when Mercury contracted AIDS and died.

Bohemian Rhapsody was not universally loved. I gather that if you are a Queen purist there are significant departures from what actually happened. In my estimation, in its totality this is a so-so film. Band members are too often presented as deer caught in Mercury’s headlights; only rarely do they have agency of their own. This is also a problem with the way Boynton’s part was written. She often appears as a muse, who flits in Tinkerbell style to save Freddie from himself and, like the band, has little personality when not swimming in Mercury (as it were). Another beef: This is still another rock bio whose structure is built along an arc that takes us from one hit to the next. Hollywood wasn’t going to cough up a Best Director Oscar given Singer’s legal woes, but he didn’t deserve one anyhow.

Let’s call Bohemian Rhapsody what it is: a run-of-the mill effort lifted by one great performance. While I’m at it, the movie is like the titular song–longer than it needs to be.

Rob Weir

* Mercury was born on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar. His parents were Indian and fled because their Parsi religious beliefs made them targets of both Hindu and Muslim bigots.   

** Paki is short for Pakistan and is a racist term used in the film (and society) by British yahoos. It is a colonial holdover that denigrates those of Southeast Asian descent regardless of actual birthplace or nationality.