Behind The Candelabra
Jun. 28th, 2013 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3And the week of movies comes to an end (probably) with the discovery of a new favourite cinema and an underwhelming movie.
The Dominion Theatre is fab - leather sofas, well positioned footstools, and it's licensed. I'll be back there.
Behind the Candelabra was...meh.
Some good performances - Scott Bakula looked great in his porn moustache, and Debbie Reynolds, as ever, stole the movie (and had the best line - "I'll take a cheque"). Michael Douglas was fearless and fascinating - he looks more like his father as he ages, and wasn't afraid to be shown bald and old and a bit creepy. It was fun to see Matt Damon being cut to look like a movie star - in this case, he was supposed to have surgery to look more like Liberace, and ended up looking more like Matt Damon, which I thought was very funny.
So I have a lot of admiration for the movie, but very little liking. Mostly, I think, because under the glitz or Liberace, past the seedy 70's and 80's West Coast gay scene, it was a very, very banal story. Rich man takes up with younger love interest, and then moves onto another, younger lover. It's a story I've seen a hundred times, and for it to work you need to care for the rich man, or the ingenue, or both, and, despite some touching moments, I just didn't like either of them. And I knew that Liberace would die alone, and I knew that there would be a palimony suit, and, to be honest, despite the comfy seats, after the first half hour I just couldn't wait for the movie to be over.
A film worth making? Definitely. A film worth seeing? I'm not so sure.
The Dominion Theatre is fab - leather sofas, well positioned footstools, and it's licensed. I'll be back there.
Behind the Candelabra was...meh.
Some good performances - Scott Bakula looked great in his porn moustache, and Debbie Reynolds, as ever, stole the movie (and had the best line - "I'll take a cheque"). Michael Douglas was fearless and fascinating - he looks more like his father as he ages, and wasn't afraid to be shown bald and old and a bit creepy. It was fun to see Matt Damon being cut to look like a movie star - in this case, he was supposed to have surgery to look more like Liberace, and ended up looking more like Matt Damon, which I thought was very funny.
So I have a lot of admiration for the movie, but very little liking. Mostly, I think, because under the glitz or Liberace, past the seedy 70's and 80's West Coast gay scene, it was a very, very banal story. Rich man takes up with younger love interest, and then moves onto another, younger lover. It's a story I've seen a hundred times, and for it to work you need to care for the rich man, or the ingenue, or both, and, despite some touching moments, I just didn't like either of them. And I knew that Liberace would die alone, and I knew that there would be a palimony suit, and, to be honest, despite the comfy seats, after the first half hour I just couldn't wait for the movie to be over.
A film worth making? Definitely. A film worth seeing? I'm not so sure.
