Elton John is a worldwide superstar of music and style, and with Paramount’s Rocketman, John’s story of overcoming is available to everyone. Played by Taron Egerton (Kingsman, Eddie the Eagle), John’s story of broken relationships leads us through his adolescence and young adulthood to the stage and back from the brink of destruction.
Audiences of the film Sing already knew that Egerton could sing, but his performance here cements his singer/actor cred. He delivers “Tiny Dancer,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” and “I’m Still Standing,” some of John’s hits, while also showing us how John’s broken family (mother had an affair and scorned her son; disinterested father left the family and never embraces his son) and other relationships drove him to cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and … shopping.
The fact that John is a musical genius cannot be separated from abuse, because the catharsis that music provided him is so organic to his persona. He’s writing with Bernie Taupin (Jaime Bell, Skin) while being abused by John Reid (Richard Madden), struggling with his relationship with his mother Sheila Wright (Bryce Dallas Howard) and encouraged by his father’s mother Ivy (Gemma Jones) into music.
In the end, John’s suffering became a gift to the world, but it almost destroyed him first. Thanks to Egerton’s acting and singing, audiences everywhere are afforded a view into that journey for a singular talent who is still standing.
More than an hour of special features provide a sing-a-long, extended musical scenes, and several more deleted scenes.
Rocketman is available now via Digital, and on Blu-ray and DVD on August 27.
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