Bohemian Rhapsody

a film by Bryan Singer and Dexter Fletcher

Is this the real life or is this just Battersea?

Robert Rankin, Armageddon: The Musical

This Christmas day, Timur and I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody (in English) in Monopol. It turned out to be neither that good nor, and especially nor, that bad as I heard or read.

Of course, it would be naïve to expect a biopic to be 100% accurate. It is not the film’s historical inaccuracies per se, and even the fact that they were rather knowingly (as both Brian May and Roger Taylor were involved in the making) introduced for extra drama or something. Not that the story of the Queen-size band needs any extra drama. Neither it is that the film focuses almost exclusively on Freddie Mercury, as if the other band’s members did not have lives offstage, in spite of the mantra of “the family”. And it is not the happy, of the sorts, ending where “Mr. Bad Guy” finally gets his dad’s approval along the “good thoughts, good words, good deeds” lines. All this is forgivable but, unfortunately, also forgettable. And that is, in my humble opinion, unforgivable. I am not sure if Sacha Baron Cohen would make better Freddie (than Rami Malek’s), but I am quite sure he would make the whole affair funnier, more alive and outrageous and, as such, more truthful to the spirit of the band as flamboyant as Their Majesties.

On the bright side: Malek’s performance is brilliant, the other band members are not bad either, and the music is, well, by Queen.