Starring: Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Scott Bakula
It’s 1977 and movie animal trainer Scott Thorson (Damon)
goes along with his friend, Bob (Bakula) to a performance by flamboyant pianist
and entertainer, Liberace (Douglas). Bob, being a friend of Liberace’s,
introduces him to Scott and the two form a friendship, which quickly
accelerates towards a strange love affair amidst Liberace’s tremendous
extravagance and tumultuous personal life.
Whilst Behind The Candelabra is destined to be behind a TV
screen in the United States, in the UK, this film about the personal life of
Liberace has been given a theatrical release and, ultimately, that’s where the
film belongs. Like the iconic entertainer that serves as the plot’s focus,
Behind The Candelabra is flashy, flamboyant, slightly gaudy but also
entertaining. Unsurprisingly Douglas steals the show as Liberace, convincingly
playing a man hiding behind as many masks as his long, flowing gowns, whilst Matt
Damon’s performance helps ground the picture; two performances bolstered by the
appearances of several notable supporting cast members (Dan Akyroyd, Scott
Bakula, Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds). The film does play a little long, but
Soderbergh gives the film a sense of bravado, playing strongly towards comedy,
but also casting some unflinching stares (the brief scenes of cosmetic surgery
are probably enough to turn most people away from procedures). Would Liberace
himself have approved of this film? Probably not as he was infamously guarded
about his sexuality (this is a man who once issued a well-publicised lawsuit to
a newspaper that had the slightest suggestion that he was homosexual, not to
mention his portrayal is hardly flattering) but it does at least have his way
with decadence.
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