Vicki Askin

I heard some negative feedback when I first stared watching about some of the set locations not being authentic enough for the 1980s. But i hardly noticed as I was so gripped by the events happening in the story. I felt genuine sadness for those children who grow up in those circumstances in real life. The acting behind the character of the young Eli was superb. For an actor so young he was so far beyond his years of experience. Simon Baker was exceptional to the point I didn’t realise it was him till I read who was in the cast. All of the actors were so well cast for their roles, but those two stood out as exceptional. My only criticism was that hard to keep the same relationship with Eli’s character when he had to be portrayed by another actor because of the time frame of him growing up.

After previously being blown away by Bohemian Rhapsody I approached ROCKETMAN without any expectation of being transported to the same level of understanding the sadness behind the brilliance of the performer. Given that every song in Rocketman, spoke more to me of my youth, than Bohemian Rhapsody, I again felt ashamed that I had not understood or given much thought to the troubled lives behind these legendary performers. The raw and vulnerable emotions portrayed so believable by Taron Egerton transported me to feeling that pain and sadness that Elton must have endured and eventually rose above. The story was told without dwelling on too much detail in each segment to stall the flow but with a flowing timeline to bring the essence of the story the full circle to understand the struggle behind the artist. The relationship exposed between Bernie Taupin and Elton explained the brilliance of the partnership and made me understand why the combination bought so much joy and love and magic to me as a teenager even if at times I had no understanding of the meaning behind some lyrics. There are few great Musicians that can compare to the caliber and scale of stars like Elton John and many other music legends of the 60s to the 90s. Their struggles were more from their behind the scenes issues than what was in the public eye. One would wonder if their brilliance would have been able to survive in the current scrutiny of social media, but thankfully we will never know. It also shames me to think how narrow minded and unaccepting the world was so few decades ago to not accept and embrace the choices people could follow to love another person regardless of their gender preferences. I am so proud of every artist and public figure who has not had to be subjected to this scrutiny because of the present worlds acceptance of their talents not their sexual preferences. This is also what is the brilliance behind these biographical movies that opens the eyes of those that are or were judgmental of these artists in the real timeline they shared with them. Left the movie feeling Wow and a heavy sigh having felt a connection with the emotional journey.