Rocketman
4 stars
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Jaime Bell, Richard Madden, Gemma Jones, Bryce Dallas Howard, Steven Mackintosh
Duration: 121 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

“This movie is about when I started to become famous,” says Elton John. “It was an extraordinary and surreal time, and that’s how I wanted the film to be.”

Well, it’s quite uncanny that ‘extraordinary’ and ‘surreal’ were two of the many adjectives that sprang to mind while watching Rocketman, a film that charts the evolution of the shy and introverted young musical prodigy Reggie Dwight into who would become the flamboyant rock and pop icon that is Elton John.

Rocketman takes us on a heady journey through John’s childhood and the achievement of stardom in his early 20s – and the trouble he had dealing with his fame, success, daddy issues, and love life which led to an inevitable drug and alcohol-fuelled downward spiral. It is indeed, extraordinary – all the more so that so much of it is true (and with John and his husband David Furnish producing, one would suspect few liberties were taken with facts) and very surreal; film-maker Dexter Fletcher eschewing familiar biopic tropes to create something exuberant, emotional and extravagant, very much like its protagonist as Dwight/John embark on the yellow brick road to stardom.

The film hits the ground running, as, wearing one of his glam costumes in shades of bright orange and flaming red, John (Taron Egerton) strides into an AA meeting to talk about his alcoholism, cocaine habit, sex addiction and his penchant for shopping. We are then taken back to his childhood, where we meet the young Reggie and his distant father (Stephen Mackintosh), his loving if needy mother (a superb turn from Bryce Dallas Howard) and adoring grandmother (Gemma Jones) – the only one who encourages young Reggie’s prodigious musical talent.

It is a scene which unfolds in a dreamlike 1950s stylised song-and-dance version of John’s hit The Bitch is Back; and it sets the tone for the entire film, with stark reality blurring into vivid fantasy, as songs from John’s extensive repertoire are used to propel the drama forward, the characters often breaking into song in the middle of dialogue. The songs chosen for this task uncannily fit the situation at hand, be they scenes of ordinary family drama or those of John in performance. There are moments of pure enjoyment and delight – a concert rendition of Crocodile Rock will make you want to jump up and dance enthusiastically in the cinema aisles. These are interspersed with some of utter heartbreak: watch John’s face crumple in unbridled pain as his father asks him to autograph one of his albums… not for himself, as his son so fervently wishes, but for a friend.

The film holds nothing back from John’s worst excesses as his severe substance use, promiscuous sex life, and prolific spending come under scrutiny in vivid detail. Hats off to then Fletcher, for delving into some very dark corners in his overall imaginative and colourful execution of Lee Hall’s excellent script.

Yet it would all have come to nought had its lead performance not been as moving, funny and powerful as Egerton’s. In a few short years the 29-year-old Egerton has become one of Britain’s greatest actors and he takes on John’s persona with consummate ease. If his singing is merely adequate, everything else he does is sublime. 

Egerton is surrounded by a pitch-perfect ensemble. Jamie Bell is a delight as Bernie Taupin, not merely the extraordinary writing talent behind pretty much every one of John’s classics to list here, but also the loyal and loving friend who stood by him throughout; while Richard Madden is equally charming, cold and calculating as John’s manager and sometime lover John Reid.