 Movie
Reviews
with Evelyn Gough
De-Lovely
Directed by Irwin Winkler
Biopics sure are popular this year.
So far we've had Alexander, Ray, The Aviator and now De-Lovely, based on the life of composer/songwriter Cole Porter.
I was looking forward to this film. I'm a big fan of Cole Porter's songs but knew very little about his life. Now thanks to De-Lovely I know that he was gay (not that there's anything wrong with that!) and despite this he went ahead and married beautiful divorcee Linda Lee (Ashley Judd). They lived the high life in Paris, Venice and eventually the United States where Porter's (Kevin Kline) smash hit Broadway musicals became smash hit Hollywood films.
The couple's physical relationship left a lot to be desired. Porter was far more interested in bedding young men than his wife and finally she left him, only to return when he suffered shocking injuries in a horse-riding accident. Hoorah! A happy ending! Well, not quite. Unfortunately by this time Linda was dying from lung cancer.
De-Lovely unfolds in a series of elegant musical episodes watched by a 73-year-old Porter and a fictitious Broadway director Gabe (Jonathan Pryce). Cole's timeless classics like Begin the Beguine, I Get a Kick Out of You, In the Still of the Night and Let's Misbehave to name a few, are done more than justice by some of today's biggest rock and pop music stars.
You'll certainly get a kick out of playing "spot the famous singers" such as Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette and Sheryl Crow all decked out in the sophisticated fashions of the 1930s, and these beautifully produced and wonderfully performed musicals numbers are definitely the highlights of what is otherwise a rather melancholic and depressing story. Condensing a person's life into two hours, especially when a good part of that time is spent singing and dancing, is always going to be a challenge and De-Lovely is no exception. In this case there is just not enough time to flesh out important characters like Linda and Cole's best friends, Gerald (Kevin McNally) and Sara Murphy (Sandra Nelson). But don't let this put you off. I would recommend De-Lovely to fans of Cole Porter. The music is delightful, delicious and de-lovely.
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