THE PUPPET AND THE MASTER (ELVIS)

Baz Luhrmann is one of those directors whose movies tend to soar when they are on song but crash when they are off the boil.

His 1992 Australian debut 'Strictly Ballroom' remains a joy to this day, while 'Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet' in 1996 with Leonardo di Caprio is arguably the most thrilling adaptation of a play by the Bard ever to be committed onscreen.

A sumptuous 2001 version of 'Moulin Rouge' with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor remains a high watermark for the director both commercially and critically - garnering eight Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe for Best Picture - Musical or a Comedy.

However his 2008 follow-up 'Australia' with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman felt lacking in substance, while his 2013 adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' was glitzy but ultimately hollow.

After 30 years in the filmmaking business, we all know Luhrmann's tricks by now.

He is drawn to high camp, epic stories and likes to have sweeping camera movements, lavish costumes, big performances, rapid fire editing and loads of contemporary and classic pop references.

Therefore there was little surprise in 2014 when the 59 year old Sydney-born director announced he was planning a movie about Elvis Presley.

And when Tom Hanks was recruited in 2019 to the role of Colonel Tom Parker, it ticked another Luhrmann box - that of having a big name star.

With Warner Bros bankrolling the project to the tune of $85 million, Luhrmann has secured the services of Craig Pearce of 'Pistol' fame as one of the screenwriters alongside Jeremy Doner and Sam Bromell.

But with some audiences old enough to remember Kurt Russell as The King in John Carpenter's 1979 movie 'Elvis' and Michael Shannon recently playing him in Liza Johnson's low key 2016 indie flick 'Elvis & Nixon' opposite Kevin Spacey, how does Luhrmann's lavish take on the pop music icon's rise and fall fare?

Luhrmann's 'Elvis' begins with a typical 'Moulin Rouge' style flourish, with sweeping images of the Las Vegas skyline and its casinos and a voiceover from Hanks' stubborn Colonel Tom Parker disputing claims that he killed his most famous asset.

Sporting a wobbly Dutch brogue, Hanks from the off portrays Parker as the Salieri to Elvis' Mozart.

A huckster who fancies himself as an illusionist and a showman, Parker calls himself "The Snowman" and runs PT Barnum style carnivals throughout the Deep South.

Among his employees are David Wenham's old style country singer Hank Snow and his son, Kodi Smit McPhee's Jimmie Rodgers Snow.

However Parker is desperate to have a new act capable of drawing in younger people and is intrigued when Jimmie plays a record of a young singer whose version of an African American blues standard 'That's Alright Mama' is causing a sensation.

In a climate where racial segregation is the norm, Parker is stunned to learn the singer is white.

Deciding to check out Austin Butler's young singer by the name of Elvis Presley at a 'Louisiana Hayride' gig , Parker is mesmerised when he sees the young man whip young girls in the audience up into a frenzy while performing the song.

To Parker, Elvis' wiggling onstage is a clever illusion that will make him and his business a lot of money.

To Elvis, it is just part of his wholehearted commitment to the performance of a blues classic.

Spying Elvis and his band praying before the gig with his mother Gladys, played Helen Thompson, and father, Richard Roxburgh's Vernon, Parker makes his move and pitches to become his manager.

In spite of Gladys' reservations, he persuades Elvis that he will make him a star, pulling the family out of poverty.

Elvis is talked into going out on the road with Parker's carnival and when Hank Snow objects to the sexual charge of the young singer's performances, the Colonel simply ditches him to take exclusive control of Elvis' career and launch him nationally.

Luhrmann and his screenwriters bring a kind of fairytale approach to the Elvis story as fame comes quickly to the young Mississippi singer.

When Parker fills in Elvis' backstory, he very much depicts him as a young man enchanted from an early age by African American music from the gospel sounds of Cle Morgan's Mahalia Jackson to the blues he heard in the mostly black, poor neighbourhood he lived in.

Elvis' fashion sense and taste in music is very influenced by the sights and sounds of Beale Street in Memphis.

He is a close friend of Kelvin Harrison Jr's up and coming blues guitarist BB King and an admirer of the work of musicians like Yola Quartey's Sister Rosetta Thorpe, Alton Mason's Little Richard and Shonka Dukureh's Big Momma Thornton.

Throughout the film, Elvis is also portrayed as having a deep connection to the struggle for civil rights.

But Parker's only passion is for money.

While Elvis frets about the music, Colonel Tom is at his most animated talking about his deals and his Elvis merchandising.

Repeatedly throughout the film he will sell his artist's soul to mediocrity if it keeps the dollars rolling in.

And he will also crush those that stand in his way - whether it is Gladys or Elvis' wife, Olivia DeJonge's Priscilla.

As the money rolls in and fame comes quickly early in the film, powerful forces muster against Elvis, with Nicholas Bell's Confederate flag waving, self appointed moral guardian Senator Jim Eastman leaning on Colonel Tom to get his act to tone his sexualised performances down or he'll have him arrested for indecency.

A tussle begins between Elvis' desire for creative freedom and Colonel Tom's willingness to do whatever it takes to keep generating money - no matter how naff.

It is a struggle that gets more intense after a second wave of popularity following a NBC TV special that puts Elvis back up on a par with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

However it all comes to a head in Las Vegas as Colonel Tom signs him up for shows in a casino to pay off Parker's gambling debts.

Ultimately it takes its toll on a superstar who would rather undertake stadium tours around the world.

Luhrmann, Pearce, Doner and Bromell deliver a broad brush telling of the Elvis legend that will delight some filmgoers but frustrate others.

In truth, this telling of the Elvis story is a bit of a mixed bag.

On the plus side, Austin Butler is a revelation as Presley and at times looks uncannily like The King during performances of some of his classics.

Other times, he looks nothing like him at all.

However he has his vocal mannerisms and physicality down to a tee.

Hanks, however, is a bit too reliant on his chubby latex and heavy Dutch accent and is unusually bested by his less experienced co-star.

Rarely at his best when portraying villains, he struggles to convince as the puppet master pulling Elvis' strings.

While he succeeds in conveying Parker's predatorial instinct and parasitic nature, his Salieri-like attempts to make Elvis conform don't quite dazzle like F Murray Abraham in 'Amadeus'.

In fact, he is so Dick Dastardly, you are left wondering what Presley saw in him and why he stuck with him to the end 

As for the rest of the cast, DeJonge is effective as Elvis' wife Priscilla and Roxburgh does a decent job as Vernon whose criminal past hangs like a shadow over the family and is exploited by Parker.

Thomson is good value too as Gladys, while Harrison Jr is appealing as BB King in the few scenes in which he appears.

Wenham amuses as Hank Snow, whilst you can't help but wish there was a bit more of Kodi Smit McPhee as Jimmie Rodgers Snow.

Dacre Montgomery and Luke Bracey also turn up, delivering spirited versions of Steve Binder and Jerry Schilling, who have a key role in Elvis's career transforming TV special. 

However while Luhrmann and his cinematographer Mandy Walker revel in the theatricality of Elvis as a live performer - particularly in the TV special and Las Vegas sequences - the film veers all too easily into a hagiography.

Luhrmann reaches far too easily for a depiction of Elvis as the Great White Hope for African American music - ensuring it is heard by the masses.

And while it is true BB King was a close friend, other African American artists like Ray Charles were not so enamoured with Presley.

Even when figures like BB King, Mahalia Jackson or Little Richard are given airtime in the movie, it is not with sufficient depth.

Awkward questions are ignored about Elvis and Priscilla's age difference - she was 14 when they met in Germany after he was conscripted into the Army.

The singer's reaching out to President Richard Nixon is also glossed over - presumably because of Lisa Johnston&s 2016 film.

Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins' roles in Elvis' career are simply written out of Luhrmann's version of the story.

Even the way the breakdown of his marriage to Priscilla is handled is underwhelming.

While the extent of his addiction to prescription drugs and his infidelity are acknowledged, his tragic predilection for fast food towards the end of his life is pretty much ignored.

'Elvis' is at its most entertaining when it is depicting the performer.

A defiant rendition of 'Trouble' in a baseball stadium while police officers prepare to arrest him for indecency is a particular delight.

However you can't help feeling this is a whitewashed biopic that skirts some really important elements of Elvis' life.

Luhrmann and his writers refuse to dig really deep, opting instead for surface gloss.

And that refusal to engage with awkward questions about Elvis's life means that it cannot really hold a candle to Forman's 'Amadeus'.

While it may not be Luhrmann's best work, it is certainly not his worst.

But you can't help feeling that a willingness to really explore Elvis' life could made it a whole lot better.

('Elvis' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on June 24, 2022)