![]() ![]() Bohemian Rhapsody may be the story of Queen, climaxing with the band’s seminal performance at 1985’s Live Aid, but it’s Mercury’s film, a personal look at the oft-times elusive front-man. But if we can let Malek off the hook for not quite possessing the range Freddie Mercury enjoyed, he captures the man’s on-stage charisma, playful preening and sheer ebullience to a tee. His vocal performance, meanwhile, is mixed with Canadian singer Marc Martel. I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this part of it’ ‘There were moments when I thought, ‘This is not my bag. I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this part of it.’” “There were moments when I thought, ‘This is not my bag. ![]() Not many people think of him in that respect.” Starting by learning the intro to the film’s titular track, Malek was determined not to fake it with cut-aways to another pianist’s hands. “Every time I thought I got something,” he sighs, “another challenge came.” Take the piano playing. Malek’s crazed dedication to the part was colossal. ![]() “If the idea was to firmly plant Rami Malek among top contenders for the Best Actor Oscar, then it was mission accomplished,” wrote Deadline. When the film was recently shown in Los Angeles, the ‘he will rock you’ buzz was audible. Photo: Monica Schipper/Gettyįrom studying every bit of concert footage he could get his hands on – “even if it’s some camcorder in Japan” – to having a set of ‘Freddie teeth’ made specially to emulate Mercury’s unique overbite, Malek’s attention to detail was all-encompassing. Robot, in between – if I had any time off – I’d fly my butt over here and jump right back in.” Rami Malek: ‘Never in a million years could I have predicted that the future me would’ve done this’. He studied Mercury’s inspirations: Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin and even Cabaret-era Liza Minnelli. A year before the film was even greenlit, Malek began to fly himself to London to take singing and piano lessons, engage with a dialect coach and work with choreographer and movement coach Polly Bennett. It often has the gentle innuendo of an obituary rather than the inquisitiveness of a biography.‘Every time I thought I got something, another challenge came’Ĭertainly, his commitment was never in doubt. You can sense the concerned involvement of the surviving members of Queen in the film’s politeness. Mercury’s sex life and HIV diagnosis are dealt with briefly, watched in quiet montage, telling audiences no more than they already know. There are some poor, strange choices when deciding where to focus, not least committing so much time to his relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) and virtually none to any happy gay relationship, romantic or otherwise. He gets almost all the good lines and offers an excess of material as a subject. Mercury’s story makes much better viewing, even if the script would prefer to allude to a life passionately lived than show it. It’s a cheerful trip through the hits, yet dramatically not very rich. Anthony McCarten’s script struggles to inject much drama into Queen’s rise, which progresses smoothly from student gigs to sold-out stadiums in just a few years. The two tales do not demand equal balance. The inherent problem there is that while the story of Freddie Mercury is fascinating and deeply moving, Queen’s road to glory is relatively free of bump. The film has a secret weapon: Rami Malek.
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