De-Lovely
Directed by: Irwin Winkler Written by: Jay Cocks
Starring: Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, John Barrowman, and Jonathan Pryce
& Featuring: Alanis Morrissette, Natalie Cole, Robbie Williams, Elvis Costello,
Sheryl Crow, and Caroline O Connor

---

You all have learned reliance on the sacred teachings of science,
____So I hope, through life, you never will decline
In spite of philistine....Defiance
____To do what all good scientists do...
Experiment.

The purpose of a frame is to contain or complement a picture, or perhaps to keep your eye from wandering beyond. They're just fine in museums, but I never understood their use in the movies. The screen is already a perfectly measured rectangle, is it not? My  own personal peccadillo is that framing devices, particularly those used in motion pictures, have the opposite effect on me than they're intended to have. As soon as I know they're drawing a box around the screen, I'm panicking. How do I get out? Just tell me the bloody story already!  I convey all of this because the De-Lovely framing device, showcased clearly and theatrically right from the start of the picture, is faux interactive. Some sort of narrator/director proxy figure (Jonathan Pryce) is interviewing the great composer, Cole Porter (Kevin Kline), asking him questions about his life, and then questioning the answers/interpretations that Porter gives as they review. This storytelling approach only causes me to want to join in on the interactive experience. I have questions that need answers, too. But more on that in a moment.

I've heard that lizards and frogs do it ---Layin' on a rock
____They say that roosters do it ---With a doodle and cock

As you may have heard De-Lovely is a bio-pic about the famous "swelegant" composer Cole Porter, who wrote some of the most delicious songs of the 1930s and 40s. Several of these transcendent ditties are peppered throughout the awkward narrative and sung by modern musical talents like Sheryl Crow, Robbie Williams, Elvis Costello, and Alanis Morissette to name just a few. Some of these work, and some don't but there's no denying that the songs themselves are genius. Yet the focus here is not really on the music, despite it's constant presence. This picture would more appropriately be called a relationship drama than a bio-pic because the film, framing device, and songs all have been intertwined and are working in cahoots to map out the alternative marriage that Cole, a known homosexual, found with Linda Porter (Ashley Judd). Indeed, the Linda Porter here is so fawned over, that it seems to be suggested more than once that every song he wrote was about her. Even the songs that have always been celebrated in modern times as the Top! The Coliseum! of coded gay love anthems, magically morph into odes to his wife... or at least feel as if they're including her.

You're the top! You're the Coliseum.
____You're the top! You're the Louvre Museum.
You're the Nile. You're the Tower of Pisa,
____You're the smile on the Mona Lisa.
I'm a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop,
But if, baby, I'm the bottom you're the top!

Kevin Kline proves well suited to the material and looks wonderful dressed in natty period finery by costume designer Janty Yates (Gladiator); He is dandy as this, well, "dandy". Ashley Judd, too, appears to be enjoying the challenge of the material. Her presence is welcome but surprising given her predilection to waste her youth and talent on a series of B to D grade trashy melodramatic thrillers that would be more at home on late night television than on movie screens. But I digress... Thankfully she's chosen material that asks something of her again and it's her best work in quite some time.

Yet watching these actors in this very specific portrayal of a real marriage left me with nagging questions. Is this really how it was? Why does the narrator's questioning always lead to some new revelation of Porter's growing love for his wife and not to any real exploration of his life outside of his marriage? Within this interactive questioning/life therapy game onscreen... my questions weren't being answered. Why does Porter's homosexuality feel so beside the point when it was so obviously a crucial part of his life? At times De-Lovely seems like a musical reimagining, in period garb, of a very special episode of Will & Grace. It may be more honest about the protagonist's sex life than that sitcom is, but it too wishes to explore only the meaningful relationship a gay man had with a female companion. Any emotional needs that often accompany sexual relationships or habits, are thoroughly ignored.

I'm a maid mad to marry. And will take double-quick
Any Tom, Dick or Harry,
____Any Tom, Harry or Dick.

As a Porter fan I was interested to see a take on his life, even one that proved sadly conventional and unilluminating. As a portrait of a marriage it sometimes works. And there's definite value in extolling the virtues of non-traditional romance. But as a biopic, if you're hoping for insight into the man himself, it just offers frustration.

Fortunately, whenever I was feeling restless or questioning the point, or angry with the straight laced interpretation of a decidedly unconventional romance, along came the music again to rescue me. Glorious, sublime, catchy, resonant ditties which feature some of the most genius lyrics ever written. Oh, that music! The wonder of the music comes through despite some poor decisions in staging (the musical sequences are disappointingly bland) and the defendable but anti-entertaining choice to have Kevin Kline sing poorly so as to be authentic to the character he plays. Cole Porter though a brilliant musician, didn't have a fine voice you see. But it still was an unfortunate decision on the filmmaker or actors part. I am of the humble opinion that if you're starring a musical, you don't downplay your musical talent. ever. Think of the audience! Liza Minelli didn't mute her gift when she played a mediocre talent in a German club and look what that did for Cabaret? And besides, let's be honest. If you are parading modern pop stars through a film about a Broadway and film composer from the golden age, you're not all that worried about authencity anyways, right? Nevertheless, if you love Cole Porter and find the movie annoying you can always close your eyes and just absorb the wit and melody of his two to four minute national treasures.

In the end, the film's pedestrian aesthetic choices and conventional point of view sit awkwardly within its semi experimental distracting frame. Yet the music drifting from the speakers does a lot to rectify any discomfort one may feel. I can't honestly say that I recommend the movie. But the soundtrack?  I purchased it immediately.

De-Lovely (Motion Picture) C+ De-Lovely (Soundtrack): B+

-Nathaniel R

 

 

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