"Beyond the Candelabra" (Liberace) - see it? what did you think?

I'm sitting there in the hotel one night, ready to go to sleep, and am flipping through channels.

I see an actor who appeared familiar, but disguised, in bed with Matt Damon. WTF. I realized it was Michael Douglas and that it was the movie about Liberace's life.

First, Michael Douglas is a good actor, but I couldn't believe how much he was able to morph to handle this unusual role. Second, Liberace's decadence and self-indulgence was really out there. It definitely painted him as a person who was not likable. There was a scene where he walks through his grand home and picks up a couple of dog turds with a napkin (from all the lap dogs that roamed the place) as if it was nothing.

I think Matt Damon, who I'm indifferent to, did a good job playing Scott Thorson, though I don't know if he was much like the real Scott Thorson. What Scott Thorson looked like doesn't come to mind right now.

I won't give any details, but his decline and death in the film are not prolonged. They are handled rather quickly.

I can say that the film is an eye-opener throughout. I knew nothing of Liberace other than about his crazy pianos and crazy costumes. The acting was good. I'm glad I saw it (piped in to my hotel room free of charge) but it can leave a person out of sorts because of the excesses. It was released through HBO. For some reason, no major studio wanted to take it on. If anybody has any ideas as to what that was all about, please share what you think.

 

Interesting thought. "Brokeback Mountain," which I believe was rated R, did well at the box office, and it was gay themed. I saw a lot of elderly married couples and young girls at that particular afternoon matinee.

I wonder if that was because it dealt with cowboys. In a way, I think this might have garnered interest because one got to look into the life of excess of a celebrity. I don't care about Liberace or his music, but he was controversial. Also, in the movie, I noticed this one guy who sort of had a minor role strutting around with his shirt off and was a friend of theirs - Bob. When they rolled the credits, it turned out it was Scott Bakula. Holy smokes.

 

I forgot to mention the plastic surgeon, played by Rob Lowe, who I have always found annoying, and who played a particularly annoying character. If that's how he conducted business, he was not that professional in my opinion. And that hair ... just wow.

 

I also heard him speak in an interview. Scott is not a likable person. The movie made him out to be more likable than he really might be.

Another thing that was weird was that Liberace said "I'm free" when his mother died. Were his puppet strings that pulled by her? Also, we do not see any of his siblings, other than know that some exist. I seriously don't know how the public could presume he could have been heterosexual for as long as it did.

Also, I erred in that this thread should say "Behind the Candelabra" instead of "Beyond the Candelabra." I can't relate either to cowboys or to pianists, but I liked this movie more than "Brokeback Mountain" because it was more urban and more recent in its time frame.

 

Michael Douglas is picking up his Golden Globe as I type.

 

I think the shallowness and excess made me uncomfortable. It's more of a case study of what happens to someone when they can command anything at the snap of a finger more so than it is about gay stereotypes, at least to me. Looking at this another way, Rock Hudson succumbed to AIDS at about the same time and, except for the private life he kept separate, he did not conform to the stereotypes. Instead, this movie painted an ugly side of the entertainment world more so than it painted a picture of everyday gay and bi men.