Elvis
This movie is unique not only for the electric performance
of Austin Butler and manipulative Col. Tom Parker played by Tom Hanks but for the
entire production. The film is not in chronical order, it jumps around
depicting Presly’s milestones. Scenes of his impoverished childhood are brief
but important showing the influence of gospel music and the frenetic gyrations
of parishioners becoming a hallmark of his “wiggling”. Elvis is a bridge
between gospel/ R&B and rock and roll. The film has a litany of black musicians
including BB King, Little Richard, Fats
Domino and Sister Rosetta Tharpe who influenced Elvis. When a reporter called
Elvis the King of Rock and Roll, he replied no Fats Domino is the King.
Austin Butler gives a dramatic and brilliant physical performance. His Elvis is
fragile and insecure. He was a mama’s boy and needed reassurance. But Butler
gives a mean rendition of Elvis’s classic songs. He sings some of the early
songs but later songs use Elvis’s voice. His dancing is kinetic and mimics the
original. Elvis was known for his wicked hips which Butler performs superbly
(when Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show he was filmed from the waist up). Butler
said the secret to the dancing is not so much the hips but the ankles. The
movie covers the arch of Elvis’s life. The scenes of his demise are brief but
powerful. Butler gives a masterful
performance of all his life’s chapters.
Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker as a cartoonish Svengali.
In a fat suit with a floppy jowl, Hanks is in a constant state sweat affecting
a nondescript European accent (the real Parker was Dutch). Elvis and Parker had
a toxic symbiotic relationship. A critic said showing Mr. Rogers as a scoundrel
would detract from the film. On the contrary, Hanks disdainful swindling portrayal
defines their complicated relationship. Elvis needed someone, good or bad.
Besides his mother
the other important woman in his life was Pricilla Presley played by Olivia
DeJong. She has good chemistry with Butler and depicts the downward spiral of
their relationship. Even after their divorce they still loved each other.
Waring to senior
citizens, the is a two bathroom movie with a run time of about two and a half
hours.
