"Bohemian Rhapsody"

4 September 2018

2 mins 30s

Christmas comes early.

With even John Lewis and Waitrose starting to feel the impact of retail's malaise, and with a certain weariness forming around the idea of the big Christmas advert, how does the company most closely associated with Yuletide marketing respond? By releasing a festive ad in the first week of September, obviously.

Strictly speaking, this isn't a Christmas ad but it's going to be perceived as one. And that means it's going to have to be pretty fucking good to head off the naysayers who complain about the way shops start gearing up for Christmas when it's still some distance away. Lucky then that it's more than pretty fucking good... it's fucking awesome.

There's always an element of improvised charm about Dougal Wilson's work... a sense that it's just something he threw together by chance. But has he ever had such a great opportunity to make this aspect of his work the central feature? The drama teacher choreographing all of the action is a cypher for Wilson, literally pulling the levers to turn a modest idea into a masterpiece.

It's unusually full of action for a Dougal Wilson film, and there's little opportunity here for the little reaction shots and moments of puzzlement he often draws from child actors to melt the hearts of the audience. But there's no need for them as the whole enterprise is literally rocking with charm. Other directors might have been tempted to build towards a slick finalé but Wilson instinctively understands that you don't always need polish to shine.

UK

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