Behind the Candelabra review

              Famously, Steven Soderbergh has said that his latest film “Behind the Candelabra”—a love story about an aged Liberace and his much younger ward—was not distributed theatrically because it was seen as too un-commercially gay for mainstream audiences. As a result, he settled to have his pop-culture biopic debut on HBO last May. However, just before it aired on American television it premiered at the Cannes film festival in France, where it was met with glowing reviews and early Emmy talk. I guess the question is if it had a normal theatrical release would there have been Oscar talk instead?

                Liberace isn’t exactly a well-known pop-culture icon these days so it might be hard to appreciate the fact that at one time he was the highest paid Vegas performer up to that point.  It might be even harder to appreciate that through his long lasting career, spanning several decades, though he was gilded, bejeweled, glittery and feather adorned, his sexuality was never really in contention until he publicly died of AIDS in mid-80’s—alongside many other closeted celebrities at that time.

                “Behind the Candelabra” stars Michael Douglas as Lee Liberace and it celebrates the last ten years of his mostly secret life. Though he became older and his style of classical piano meets old-time boogie-woogie wasn’t in vogue anymore, he was still living an extravagant lifestyle in his fancy palace-like, Las Vegas mansion.

                Through a friend he meets Scott Thorson (played by Matt Damon), a young dog trainer living with foster parents in LA. After initially hitting it off, the two move in together and start living their lives like a married couple. They grow older together, they grow fat together, the lose weight together—using the dangerous “Hollywood diet”— and they even get matching plastic surgery together. 

                While mixing traditional biopic forms with something like a relationship dramedy, this movie tries to strike a difficult balance between a lot of things. It wants to be campy and heartfelt, it wants to be funny and sad, and it wants to portray Scott and Lee’s romance as typical by the standards of any heterosexual marriage, while being completely bonkers at the same time. Surprisingly, it actually achieves all of this and under the studied hand of Steven Soderbergh, it not only manages to round out all of the screenplays complicated contradictions , but it does so while looking really stylish and cinematic as well.

                Despite the fact that this film does deal with explicit gay themes and some depressing issues like AIDS and infidelity, it was made with a wide audience in mind. Much of the movies retro-70s’ milieu and the glamorous camp that comes with it, lends to a warm sense of self-deprecating, dry humor that keeps things light and fast moving as we sprint through the characters’ tumultuous relationship. 

                Conversely, underlying the all of the glitz and romance, there is also a darker edge to this story. While Liberace had aged in hiding about his sexuality he had become something of a lonely recluse into his later years. After bringing Scott into his life, Lee begins to control and manipulate Scott into sealing himself tightly into the lavish, gold plated closet that he built for his own protection. Soderbergh paints Liberace as a tragic, King Midas like character that hides openly in his self-made world of opulence and it's within this Sunset Blvd-esq, Gothic character study that supplies the movie's emotional heft.

                Of course more than anything, this is a wonderful actor’s showcase. Douglas disappears in this career re-defining role and Damon plays the conflicted Thorson with absolute abandon. Walk on performances by Dan Acaroid as Liberace’s tough-as-nails manager, Rob Lowe as the hilariously flaky plastic surgeon, and Nicky Katt as the shady drug dealer helps keep even the would-be filler scenes alive.   

                If I were to find any fault with this film it is only that the storytelling is a little too linear and conventional. Even without succumbing to hackneyed flashbacks, the screenplay could have served to be more dynamic with its timeline as it progressed. But even with that minor complaint aside, I can’t help but recommend this lively and entertaining TV-Movie.

                 While some of the subject matter in “Behind the Candelabra” might be seen as challenging or niche, I found it to be perfectly digestible for those with an open mind and more than deserving to be seen projected. If this is to truly be Soderbergh’s last film, as he has stated numerously, than we have unfortunately lost one of our greatest working directors due to Hollywood’s ever increasing lack of spine.  It might have not been as big of a crowd pleaser as “Ocean’s Eleven” or “Contagion” but it surely would have found an audience somewhere in the market and with the right campaign behind it might have even garnered some major awards consideration.

Grade: B+

Originally published in The Basic Alternative/July-2013