As Presley’s biography, “Elvis” is not particularly bright. As you can see on Wikipedia, everything is there. Elvis suffers from the death of her twin brother Jesse and is dedicated to her mother, Gladys (Herentmuson). The relationship with his father, Vernon (Richard Roxburgh), is more complicated. The boy grew up poorly in Tupelo, Mississippi and Memphis, and at the age of 19, entered the Sun Records recording studio and set fire to the world. Then there’s the Army’s marriage to Prisila (Olivia Dejon), Hollywood, the 1968 comeback broadcast, a long stay in Las Vegas, a divorce from Prisila, and the sad and bloated sight of his last year.
Butler is okay for just a few moments of the behind-the-scenes drama that the script allows, but most of the emotional behavior is telegraphed in Rahman’s usual emphasized breathtaking style. The actor looks most completely Elvis in front of the audience, as the movie suggests. Those hips don’t lie, and Butler captures the smoldering physicality of performer Elvis, as well as the playfulness and fragility that has driven the crowd into the wild. You can’t imitate the voice, the movie doesn’t try wisely, and it remixes rather than trying to duplicate the actual Elvis recording.
Elvis is cheerful, sharing performances and bills from Hank Snow (David Wenham), Snow’s son, Jimmy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and other nations at the first major performance at the Dance Hall in Texarkana, Ark. Pink suit, dark make-up, sparkling pompador. A man in the audience shouts a homosexual slur, but after a few bars where the man’s date and all the other women in the room are shouting her lungs, as the Colonel says, “She I don’t know if she should enjoy it. ” Gladys is scared and the scene carries the burden of sexual danger. Elvis is a modern-day Orpheus, and these manados are trying to tear him apart. In another scene, returning to Memphis, Elvis sees Little Richard (Alton Mason) tearing “Tutti Frutti” (a song he will cover later) and sees the spirit of his relatives.
