The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C+
I’ll just say upfront that I don’t really care about Elvis. I don’t particularly dislike him, I just never understood the fascination with him. That leaves me in a bit of an awkward position with this review because I don’t know a damn thing on Elvis’ life (which will come up in a bit when we get to Priscilla), so I don’t know how accurate this movie is. You could tell me that Elvis was once John Wayne’s synchronized swimming partner and I would just think “well, that’s a hell of a thing” and go on with my day. So I am reviewing this purely as a film, as if Elvis was a fictional character, because that’s the only perspective that I have. And, as a film, I liked it more than I expected to like it. It’s too long, it’s unfocused and it features one of the weirdest performances I’ve ever seen, but, from my perspective of pure ignorance, it is more entertaining than I expected.
It’s difficult to plot crunch a movie that runs the gamut of a man’s life, but the film covers Elvis’ life from his childhood as a poor kid in Mississippi through his meteoric rise in fame all the way to his sad downfall in Las Vegas. Interestingly, the framing device and narrative focal point is Elvis’ relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, a human being that I never knew existed before I watched this movie. Parker is a small-time promoter and borderline conman that discovers Elvis and rides his coattails all the way from being a carnival attraction (Elvis started out playing carnivals?) to being one of the most successful musicians in history. This angle will likely be divisive among those hoping that the film would focus more on Elvis’ music or love life, but it is interesting in that it turns the film into more of a tragic cautionary tale than a musical biography. This is just as much Parker’s story as it is Elvis’ story and Parker even serves as the story’s narrator, for better or worse. Mostly worse. More on that in a minute.
On the plus side (from an entertainment perspective), I left the theater viewing Elvis as a far more tragic figure than I had ever imagined. The film does an excellent job of chronicling Parker’s manipulation of the naïve Presley family and becomes particularly engaging when it arrives at the Vegas stage of Elvis’ life. I always assumed that Elvis settled down in Vegas because that’s where his career was at that point; the revelation that he was caught in a contractual trap (ha!) manipulated by a living cartoon villain shows the man in a completely different light. The final 40 minutes or so of Elvis are truly sad, showing the downfall of an icon that turned to drugs and booze over the self-loathing realization that, had he not been so trusting, he could have been playing stadiums around the world rather than endlessly playing the same casino.
Unfortunately, despite the film’s excessive 2 hour and 40 minute running time, the film rarely shows any true depth or insight into any stage of Elvis’ life. I went into the theater knowing practically nothing about Elvis’ music and I left the theater knowing practically nothing about Elvis’ music. His film career is glossed over in about five minutes of narration. Even his relationship with Priscilla is barely a blip on the film’s radar. When I got home, the Film Nurse asked me how the movie handled Priscilla and I had no idea what she was getting at. Apparently, Elvis started dating her when she was only thirteen, a point that is never mentioned in the movie (in the film, she seems to be in her 20s when she is introduced). She is so insignificant, in fact, that when she shows up near the end to dump him, I thought “oh, right…he was married.” The film finally gains some narrative traction when the story hits Vegas, but it takes forever to get there and I wish that the entire film had focused on this stage of his life. In short, if you are looking for an in-depth biography, this ain’t it.
Aside from the erratic storytelling, Elvis is the tale of two performances. On one hand, Austin Butler is absolutely amazing as Elvis. Not only does he look the part and move like the part, he truly pulls off the tragedy of the man and had me feeling bad for a historical figure that I never held any affection for. It’s a nuanced performance that must combine emotional weight with incredible showmanship and Butler is deserving of serious awards consideration. On the other end of the spectrum, I need to address the elephant in the room of reviewing this movie….what the fuck is Tom Hanks doing? Hanks’ portrayal of Parker is so cartoonish, so ridiculously over the top that it must have been a conscious choice, but it is absolutely baffling. He plays Parker as a cross between Colonel Sanders, The Penguin and Dracula while somehow managing to be more ridiculous than each of those things. I was never sure if he would try to kill Elvis or offer him a bucket of delicious fried chicken. He absolutely torpedos every dramatic scene that he is in, it’s like watching Bohemian Rhapsody if Foghorn Leghorn interrupted Freddie Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis. Obviously, Tom Hanks is a great actor, so I have no idea what anyone was thinking with this performance, but he ruins the dramatic impact of every moment that he is on screen.
I’m curious how Elvis fans will view this movie. It is certainly a positive, if sad, portrayal of the man, but I have no idea how accurate it is (the Priscilla bit makes me think it isn’t very accurate, but I don’t know). Strictly as a film, it has significant flaws, but is somewhat salvaged by an amazing lead performance and a dramatic final act. If you’re not an Elvis fan, it’s worth a viewing if you are bored one day and have a whole lot of time to kill. If you are an Elvis fan, then I have no idea how you will feel about it. But we’ll all agree that Tom Hanks’ performance is frigging ridiculous.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_(2022_film)#/media/File:Elvis_2022_poster.jpg
