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De-Lovely

De-Lovely is a movie about Cole Porter's life. It's meant to be an honest look at his life, so it not only explores his marriage and his music, but it also includes his interests in men - nothing that makes the audience squirm (if you're wondering).

I'm still deciding on my opinion of the set-up of this film. The idea is that an angel(? didn't quite catch what he was) is putting on a "this is your life" type play for the already-deceased Porter. Porter makes corrections and comments throughout the play as we, the audience, watch his story. Sometimes the interruptions help explain things, and sometimes I just wanted the story to continue without him.

But besides that, the musical performances and the acting in this movie are great! I love the seamless transitions between a scene and the song. I love watching Elvis Costello singing Let's Misbehave. And who knew that Alanis Morrissette could sound good if she only sang a different style of music, written by someone else? There were also songs by Robbie Williams, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, and more. The big stage performances, the choreographed in-scene performances, and even the scenes with Porter or his wife singing at the piano are all absorbing and entertaining.

(Unfortunately,) I went to a showing of this film filled with elderly people. I can tell it made many audience members reminisce about the old days because many of them talked throughout the entire movie "Oh, remember when that song came out, it was sung by Ethel Merman?!" "Yeah, I remember that."

But beyond the singing are some great performances by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. They had the whole audience crying by the end.

I really enjoyed this one. I had a feeling there was a lot more to the story, but since it covered Porter's entire career, I think it went deep enough while keeping the story moving at a good pace. Great performances by everyone.

Posted by wendytime at July 19, 2004 01:55 PM | TrackBack