Rocketman Parent Guide

Elton John was under pressure to make sure the musical biopic of his life, Rocketman, was clean enough to receive a PG-13 rating. “But,” said Sir Elton, “I just haven’t led a PG-13 life. I didn’t want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a bit of both during the ‘70s and ‘80s.” While Rocketman might not be “packed” with sex and drugs, it is certainly full of both – and a not inconsiderable amount of profanity.

And this is unfortunate. Rocketman tells an absorbing, albeit sadly familiar, story and I wish director Dexter Fletcher had toned down the content issues enough to achieve a PG-13 rating. Instead, Rocketman features excessive sexual content, including an orgy at a nightclub and a manipulative, transactional sexual relationship between Elton John and his manager, John Reid (Richard Madden). It also depicts near-constant drug and alcohol use, including one scene where a despairing and very drunk Elton John (Taron Egerton) swallows fistfuls of prescription drugs, chases them down with more alcohol, and tries to kill himself by falling into his swimming pool. Not seeming to learn from these experiences, he boasts that he has had sex with everything that moves and has taken every drug ever invented and has enjoyed every minute. This is definitely not a message parents will embrace for their teens.

It can be a challenge for filmmakers to make an honest film about the life of a famous person while still making it clean enough for mass market viewing. But, we know that Fletcher is capable of doing so: he directed Academy-Award-winning Bohemian Rhapsody and depicted Freddie Mercury’s sexuality and substance abuse issues honestly and sensitively without being overly explicit. And I really wish Fletcher had managed to thread that needle here because Rocketman is a fascinating film. Young Reginald Dwight, played with charm and vulnerability by Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor, is a prodigiously gifted child, with a legendary musical ear and memory, able to play any song he hears. His parents (Bryce Dallas Howard and Steve Mackintosh), cold and critical, have no interest in their son, but his proud grandmother (Gemma Jones) nurtures his talent. Eventually young Reggie, now a pianist, vocalist, and composer who can’t write lyrics, fortuitously meets Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), a lyricist looking for a composer. Reggie renames himself Elton Hercules John, starts churning out tunes to go with Bernie’s lyrics, releases an album…and the rest is history.

This movie isn’t exactly a historical biopic though. Rocketman is less concerned with recreating the actual events of Elton John’s life than with portraying how it felt to be Elton John. And it uses his songs to tell the story. During the first, smashingly successful American concert, both Elton and the audience levitate to the sound of Crocodile Rock - a moment which communicates the ebullience and effervescence of the moment. And when Elton John feels disconnected from all sense of meaning in his life, he sings Rocketman while sitting in the bottom of the swimming pool where he has tried to kill himself. Yellow Brick Road is the soundtrack to the disintegration of his life and relationships. His inexplicable – and unexplained - marriage to a woman (Celinde Schoenmaker) is prefaced by Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me. But the best moment in the film is when he sings Your Song. He’s singing for Bernie, and their enduring platonic friendship is the warm, emotional center of Elton’s out of control life.

Rocketman is filled with catchy song and dance numbers and bright, colorful concerts that bring audiences inside Elton John’s music and, to some extent, his life. It’s a musical fantasia, as bright and energetic as Elton John’s performances. But the content issues are so problematic that it is definitely not a fantastic family film. And that’s a shame…but I guess that’s why they call it the blues.