Bohemian Rhapsody provided a lot of entertainment if you're a fan of Queen, but it seems Rami Malek was hoping for even more. The man who plays Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in the film says that, while he is pleased overall with the movie, he does wish it could have delved a bit deeper into Mercury's personal life and says he pushed for the film to include more, specifically regarding Mercury's relationship with Jim Hutton and other men. According to Malek...
I just kept pushing for more of that aspect of his life. I don't know if we ever felt fulfilled by it.
It's not too surprising to hear that somebody on the production of Bohemian Rhapsody wanted to see the movie get a little bit deeper in dealing with the life of the film's main character. The fact that the film is only a surface-deep exploration of Freddie Mercury was probably the major complaint coming out of the film. It recreates events on screen, but does little to explain them or explore why they happened. In the end, the film is more rock opera than it is a real biopic.
Jim Hutton, who would become a major part of Freddie Mercury's life is only given one scene before the movie begins its wrap up. Mercury's sexuality isn't hidden in the film, which was a fear that many had going in, but it also isn't really given any real time on screen beyond acknowledging he wasn't straight.
For what it's worth, Rami Malek tells Australia's Who that he understands why the movie wasn't able to do more. The film simply had so much material to cover. From Queen's meteoric rise into superstardom to Mercury's relationship with Mary Austin, which is the primary relationship in Mercury's life the film deals with, there apparently just wasn't room for more.
Certainly, Bohemian Rhapsody decided that what it really wanted to do was showcase Queen as a band, which means that a large portion of the film is dedicated to the creation and performance of particular songs, including a finale that recreates almost the entirety of the band's epic 1985 Live Aid performance. And it should be said that those musical moments are fantastic, but they do exist at the expense of other things.
If you wanted to see big musical moments with a movie theater's high-end sound system then Bohemian Rhapsody was everything that you needed. If, however, you wanted to learn something about Freddie Mercury, who he was, how he became the person we saw on stage or how he felt after becoming a star, you only get the briefest glimpse at that.
Rami Malek may have tried to give us more of Freddie Mercury but ultimately he wasn't able to make it happen. It doesn't make Bohemian Rhapsody a bad movie, just one that isn't quite as good as it could have been. Still, it rocks pretty hard.
