ReviewCannes 2019: Rocketman film review – Taron Egerton superb as Elton John in musical biopic
- Styled as a fantasy musical, Dexter Fletcher’s film covers the base points of the singer’s life but doesn’t stick strictly to the facts
- There’s the fame and fortune, his love affair with his manager, the spells in rehab; musical numbers are staged with panache, with Egerton commanding on stage
4/5 stars
Premiering out of competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Rocketman is director Dexter Fletcher’s exuberant tribute to singer-pianist Elton John. After rescuing recent hit Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody when Bryan Singer was fired, the British filmmaker does an about-turn from that rather more straightforward tale.
This is styled as a fantasy musical, right from the moment John (played superbly by Taron Egerton, who worked with Fletcher on Eddie the Eagle ) goes from rehab in a feathery orange stage outfit and bursts into a drab street in Pinner, north London, where he grew up, singing The Bitch Is Back.
Fletcher stages the musical numbers with real panache, and Egerton is commanding on stage – notably in the sequence where he plays Crocodile Rock at the Troubadour, the Los Angeles musical haunt where he kick-starts his career. The fact that John never actually played that song back then scarcely matters, for this is a souped-up version of his life as flamboyant as its subject.
Written by Lee Hall, the script covers the base points: a father (Steven Mackintosh) who didn’t love him, a mother (Bryce Dallas Howard) who was unfaithful to her husband, and dealing with his own homosexuality.
Of course, John’s long-time lyricist Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell) gets a look-in, and it’s their pairing that sends John to superstardom. There’s no real sense of his career trajectory here; rather it’s all about the fame and fortune – he was a multimillionaire at 25 – that came so quickly.