Big Picture Big Sound

Egerton Stuns in Glitterbomb Musical

Musical biopics might cause as much fatigue as "Star Wars" or a new Marvel movie does for casual fans because it seems like we get one every couple of years. Dexter Fletcher's "Rocketman" is the latest, tackling the life of Elton John and doing its best - and often succeeding - to shake-up a familiar moviegoing experience.

Stories about musicians seem like "you've seen one, you've seen them all," and the same trajectory is present in "Rocketman." The movie doesn't shy away from the sex, drugs, ego, and fights that have made John who he is and the great performer he became at such an early age.

The movie begins with John (Taron Egerton, "Kingsman: The Golden Circle") entering an addiction meeting, in full costume, and reflecting upon his life and what brought him to that room. It's not exactly a new technique to start the story but is a welcome change-up of narrative from your typical biopic. From there, the movie works backwards through John's life - named Reggie as a young boy - from his childhood with his unhappy mother Shelia (Bryce Dallas Howard, "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom") and emotionally absent father (Steven Mackintosh).  At an early age, Reggie discovers an appreciation and aptitude for music, which sends him to the Royal Academy of Music.

It's a brief jumping off point until we meet Elton John, and "Rocketman" takes us through the highs, and many lows, of John's life. He forms a friendship with Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell, "Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool," in one of his best performances), who writes a lot of John's songs. He forms a romantic relationship with his manager John Reid (a swaggering Richard Madden), who's conniving approach to sex and business confuses John.

As John's fame continues to rise, so does his ego, which causes clashes with most of those around him. Drugs and alcohol become much more prevalent in his life, which doesn't help the unpredictability of his mood towards those in his orbit, which begins to push people away. It may seem tried-and-true, but it's the life attached to far too many geniuses of their craft.

For all its familiarity, "Rocketman" manages to keeps things refreshingly alive and poignant, due in large part to Egerton's dynamic performance as John. The actor does all of his own singing and doesn't necessarily sound like John, but it keeps his performance from feeling like a distracting imitation. Instead, he embodies the theatricality of the singer and matches it with his vulnerability. Egerton finds the perfect balance of representing John's life on stage and off, which tended to be entirely different. No scene in the film resonates deeper than Egerton's rendition of "Your Song," which is a worthy clip to play on Oscar night, should he be deservedly nominated.

"Rocketman" is structured like a Broadway musical, incorporating the hits into the story as a means of propelling the narrative forward. There's rarely a moment of great discovery as everyone sits around waiting for the light bulb to go off above their head as they concoct the next song.  It keeps things moving at a breezy pace, while making you feel like you're watching a concert within a movie.

John's life was made for a movie and Fletcher succeeds in portraying the glittery flamboyance of it all. "Rocketman" has the pleasing aesthetic of a storybook jukebox musical but is punctuated with a piercing and unescapable sense of melancholy. The tones never clash, which is a feat in and of itself, and it make for a much richer movie than one would expect.