By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca
Cannes Competition Review: Behind The Candelabra
“Too much of a good thing is wonderful.”
Resembling the face of Liberace himself, Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra is a dazzling albeit saggy film, made competently and with sincere respect to its topic despite losing steam in its second hour. Had this not been Soderbergh’s purported swan song, it’s unclear if Candelabra would normally be required viewing; nevertheless, the picture is entertaining and altogether a safe bet, debuting next week on HBO in the U. S. May 26. (The statistics on who watches will make for a very interesting post-mortem.)
Adapting Scott Thorson’s 1988 memoir “Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace,” Soderbergh rejoins frequent collaborators Matt Damon and Michael Douglas to dramatize the affair between Liberace (Douglas) and his substantially younger lover (Damon). The film drops at a time when same-sex marriage debates are turning into real results, with twelve states having extended marriage laws (and the inherent legal benefits) to include gay and lesbian couples. In that way, Behind the Candelabra is certainly relevant; exacting the reality of what happens to relationships—straight or otherwise—if the proper paperwork isn’t signed or agreed upon. The film also wrestles with the idea that things would be different had Liberace and Thorson met today, but Soderbergh likely could have said more here; using his critical authority visible in his recent “State of Cinema” keynote speech to advance the politics further would have been welcome.
Audiences will boot up Candelabra expecting a film about Liberace, but this is really Scott Thorson’s story and specifically Matt Damon’s chance to shine. It’s easy to focus on Douglas’ performance as Liberace and extol it as the film’s biggest showcase, but Soderbergh gives Damon the opportunity to play and experiment: Thorson’s emotional barometer wavers far more than Liberace’s does. Damon’s wide-ranging performance aims high and succeeds, digging deep and going for broke in the film’s more desperate scenes. So while Douglas embodies Liberace with indisputable skill and showmanship, the picture trains not on the star-studded spotlight but immediately outside of it, keeping Thorson’s perspective front and center at all times (not unlike 2011’s My Week with Marilyn). Supporting the pair is Rob Lowe as a squinting plastic surgeon, his inert facial expressions stealing the show with big laughs.
Like Brokeback Mountain before it, the film should put another dent in society’s homophobia, which seems partly the reason why Soderbergh wanted to make this picture (eventually taking it to HBO because of Hollywood rejection). Commendable. It’s certainly an engaging story (and sold perfectly by Damon and Douglas), but things run out of steam by the second half, the relationship becoming too by-the-numbers to engage like the first hour does. The cycle of Liberace’s lovers—Adonises on a conveyor belt in-and-out the door—is touched upon, working to underline a clinching jealousy that Damon channels so well in the spacious run-time. But because of the lagging pace, Behind the Candelabra is not a great movie but a competent Soderbergh picture; existing as most competent Soderbergh pictures do in his filmography (and there are a lot of them). While the nostalgic set pieces and character performances are indelible, the film’s stretched thin to diminishing returns, proving too much of a good thing isn’t all that wonderful—just a little flat.