Elton John goes to a meeting for addiction rehabilitation, while wearing a flamboyant devil’s outfit. He talks about how as a young boy; he had dreams to be a musician. 

The first musical number begins and the scene switches to a flashback of the 1950s, when Elton (or Reginald Dwight, his birth name) was little. His mom forces him to come inside the house and won’t serve him dinner. But that doesn’t stop him from playing the piano in his spare time. He convinces his dad that he wants to play it. Like his mother, his father is also unsupportive of both that and Reginald himself.

Years have passed. Reginald is now around his early teens and has received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. Despite his parents’ distaste toward that, his grandma gladly takes him to it. He tries out, and gets in.

Later Reginald is at a pub and plays the piano. During that time, the scene switches to Reginald as a young man. Shortly after, he joins the band Bluesology. 

At some point, Reginald gets a music manager, Ray Williams, who suggests that he pick a different name for himself as a singer. He decides to call himself Elton John.

Williams later introduces Elton to Bernie Taupin, and they become close friends. Elton discovers that he is gay, and reveals that to his landlady, which infuriates her. She evicts him from his home because of that. So, he has to move back with his mom.

But he and his band do get invited to perform at a club in Hollywood, California. Elton does a great job. He and Bernie also officially become a gay couple.

However, things go downhill for Elton. He is given a new manager, Reid, who forces him to tell his mother that he is homosexual. Not surprisingly, that angers her. She even tells him that he will always be unloved. 

This puts poor Elton’s mental health into jeopardy. He develops various addictions and even tries to kill himself at his own party later on. 

More stakes rise, as well…

One thing that surprised me was that this movie was a musical, despite being about a real person’s life, although the film did not contain as many songs as other musicals. But the songs were still good, even though around half of them were actual songs sung by Elton John himself. Some, however, were sung by different characters.

For example, in one scene, Bernie dumps Elton and sings, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” as he leaves him. The instrumental music is executed with some more dramatic beats, such as a quick thump at the beginning of the song. This I highly admire since it adds a twist.

I felt sorry for what Elton went through during this moment, especially since his parents mistreated him as a kid. Although like with any movies about real people, this one did fictionalize some details, including Elton’s relationship with Bernie. They actually never had an argument like they did in this movie.

Elton’s half-brother and stepmother were also kind to him in real life. However, his own mom was portrayed more accurately. One example is how she wouldn’t let him style his hair like Elvis Presley.

So, seeing Elton be in a relationship with someone who loved him felt good.

Despite the strengths, though, I will admit that the scenes switched too quickly, thus making it harder for me to follow the story. A lot of them involve Elton performing at concerts, but then experiencing bad things until he wakes up somewhere. And each place is different.

On the bright side, the pacing of the film was not too slow for the most part. But toward the end, it lagged a bit due to the constant scene switching. Don’t worry, though. I’m not going to spoil the ending.

The movie is also 2 hours long, which can be a little bit of a challenge for those with shorter attention spans. It is also not meant for kids since it is rated R. 

But for older audiences who don’t like content that is too raunchy (the R-rating is more for language and some intimacy scenes), this movie would be a good choice. 

I give Rocketman 3.5 out of 5 stars.