“Rocketman” opens with its star in a devil’s costume, walking into an addiction rehabilitation session and telling his life backward. That is the promise of the film: Elton John’s story told through his own music, not recited over it. Dexter Fletcher directs from a script by Lee Hall, and the film runs 121 minutes.
Trailer, via Paramount Pictures.
Taron Egerton Sings His Own Way Through
Egerton plays Elton John, born Reginald Dwight, and he does the singing himself. The film follows Reginald from the suburbs of 1950s Britain through the Royal Academy of Music, then into Bluesology, the band hired to back the Isley Brothers and Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. Ronald Isley tells him to write songs and put his old life behind him.
He takes the name Elton from Elton Dean, the band’s saxophonist, and John from John Lennon. Jamie Bell plays Bernie Taupin, the lyricist Ray Williams introduces him to. They move into a flat, write “Your Song,” and land a debut at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.
Bryce Dallas Howard Plays Sheila Cold
Bryce Dallas Howard plays Sheila, the mother who never warms to him. Steven Mackintosh plays Stanley, the father who takes no interest and then abandons the family after Sheila’s affair. Gemma Jones plays Ivy, the grandmother who supplies what the parents do not.
Fred, played by Tom Bennett, moves in and hands the boy rock music. Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor split the young and teenage Reginald. Richard Madden plays John Reid, the manager.
The Songs Carry What Dialogue Cannot
The tagline is “Based on a true fantasy,” and the film means it. Numbers break out of rooms, chronology bends, and the songs carry the interior life that dialogue would otherwise have to explain. That is the right call for a subject whose catalog already narrates him.
The flashback frame does real work. John enters rehab in the devil suit and the film never lets go of that room, so the rise arrives with its cost already visible. Fletcher keeps the staging theatrical without losing the thread.
The Parents Get Flat Strokes
The parents are the problem. Sheila and Stanley are drawn in flat strokes, and Howard and Mackintosh get little to play beyond coldness. The film wants the wound to explain the man, but it sketches the wound.
The order of the story is worth laying out, because the film’s structure is its argument:
- Rehab session, in the devil’s outfit
- Childhood in 1950s Britain
- Royal Academy of Music
- Bluesology and the name change
- Bernie Taupin and “Your Song”
- The Troubadour debut
That sequence puts the confession first and the fame second, which is the film’s best decision.
Michael Gracey and Tom Hardy Left First
This project took years to reach theaters. Focus Features acquired the rights in 2013 with Michael Gracey set to direct and Tom Hardy set to star. Both left after creative differences between Focus and John halted a planned autumn 2014 start. Paramount Pictures and New Republic Pictures took over as distributor in April 2018, and Egerton and Fletcher signed on.
Principal photography began in August 2018. John served as executive producer, and his husband David Furnish produced.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2013 | Focus Features acquires rights; Gracey and Hardy attached |
| Autumn 2014 | Planned production start halted |
| April 2018 | Paramount and New Republic take over; Egerton and Fletcher sign on |
| August 2018 | Principal photography begins |
| 2019 | Rocketman released |
The Fantasy Outruns the Truth
“Rocketman” is a good film that could have been a great one. The music sequences earn their place, Egerton holds the center, and the rehab frame gives the whole thing a spine. What holds it back is the writing around the family, which stays at the surface when the film needs it to cut.
The fantasy works. The truth underneath it is thinner than the songs deserve.
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