Director Dexter Fletcher’s musical interpretation of Elton John’s life (all set to his music) is an inventive and exhaustive experience that both overstays its welcome and seems to cut itself short.
Taron Edgerton is unquestionably brilliant as John, successfully exhibiting the musician’s talent (with Edgerton impressively singing all the songs onscreen), weaknesses, and passions. Unfortunately, Edgerton’s talent can’t fully combat the fact that he is fundamentally miscast in the role. He looks nothing like John and is far too masculine a presence to fully exude the pop icon’s flamboyance and quirkiness.
The film skims the surface of many events in John’s life, but doesn’t settle on any of them long enough to fully explore their importance. You get a strong sense of who John is early on, but you don’t fully understand why success turns him into the demon-soaked, narcissistic mess he becomes later in life.
Though the film’s spectacle-driven style makes it stand out from the typical biopic, it dramatically feels forced and relies far too heavily on sentiment in the end to leave a lasting impact. Rocketman could have used a little less flare and a little more earthbound reality to fully humanize its larger-than-life subject.
GRADE: B-
