January 30, 2005
De-Lovely
Critic: Steph Lewis
On a scale of 0 to Awesome, I rate this: "CREATIVE" or "UNIQUE"
Released: July 2, 2004
Director: Irwin Winkler
MPAA RATING: PG-13, sexual content
It's Pretentious! It's Obnoxious! It's De-Crappy!
Okay, that may have been a bit over the top. Sorry.
This movie tells the story of Cole Porter's life (Kevin Kline) and his journey to find love through those around him and his music. Porter is known for writing songs such as "It's De-Lovely," "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love," "Let's Misbehave," and "Anything Goes," and the musical "Kiss Me Kate."
This movie is told in a creepy ghost-of-Christmas-past kind of way. Porter, aged and grumbly, watches the musical of his life. He makes comments throughout the scenes, which are woven with his music and scenes from the past. He watches himself write songs, meet inspirations, move to America, and live out his life. His wife, Linda Lee (Ashley Judd), is amazingly loyal to him, despite his obvious preference for men and their sexless marriage. Modern-day singers such as Elvis Costello, Robbie Williams, Alanis Morissette, Natalie Cole, and Sheryl Crow sing his music throughout...but are sadly not on the screen as much as we'd like.
I've seen lots of debate regarding the historical accuracy of this movie. It's difficult to watch a movie of a real-life person that is neither historical nor accurate. Obviously, some artistic decisions need to be made, but this one may have gone too far. I wonder what the real Cole Porter would say if he could critique the movie of him critiquing the musical of his life.
The entire movie came off as very pretentious to me. Porter seemed shallowly acted and the aging make-up was irritating. Thank goodness for Ashley Judd, the lone spotlight deserver in the entire movie. She is beautiful and graceful and plays her role quite well...but the aging make-up was really annoying.