Sorry Darling... But You're No Freddie

The real Freddie Mercury (left) at Live Aid in 1985 stares down "Bo-Rhap" star Rami Malek

Well, I finally got round to watching last year's big biopic about Freddie Mercury, "Bohemian Rhapsody," and I have to say I found it only fair-to-middling.  There's something about all those wigs and Malek's prosthetic front teeth that automatically put the film in TV-Movie territory for me.  While I do think Rami Malek did a fine job of mimicry, especially with Freddie's speaking voice, I never would have called his performance "Oscar-worthy."  I kept picturing him watching Youtube videos of Freddie talking, Freddie singing, Freddie strutting on the stage, with a mirror next to the monitor, copying over and over and over what he saw and heard.

And there's merit in the work ethic.  The Academy does appreciate it. Look at Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, and Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles.

Sure the movie was hyped to an epic degree.  But I honestly don't believe that's where my problem with it lies.  There's just something so unique about Freddie Mercury that I think defies capture.  Maybe it's his physicality? When you look at Freddie, you see that he carries himself both regally and athletically.  When I watch videos of him I have no trouble picturing him in his previous incarnation -- as an amateur youth boxer.

Rami Malek? Not so much.  The one time he "puts up his dukes," so to speak, in a hackneyed spat with his drummer, it reads as comical.

As Freddie might have put it, "Sorry darling."