Review

Review Date: 18-July-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Junk

De-Lovely (2004)

I have never liked dramas that aim to romanticize dysfunctional long-term relationships (e.g., "Wuthering Heights"), and I certainly don't like "De-Lovely," the latest addition to the genre. This biopic uses the glorious music and fabulous social setting of Cole Porter to gild what is essentially a story about a self-indulgent bastard and a woman who gets off on torturing herself.

The movie traces the marriage of Porter (Kevin Kline) and Linda Lee (Ashley Judd), who met in Paris in 1919 and occupied lavish mansions and glamorous salons in Europe and the States (usually together) until her death in 1954. Theirs was an unconventional pairing from the start, since he was not only gay but a profligate horndog who apparently slept with any pretty fellow his fame, friends, and pimps could provide. Although it may be true that sexual intimacy and even fidelity aren't necessary to sustain love, "De-Lovely" doesn't clearly explain what replaced these things in the Porter union. It suggests that as long as he looked after his career, Linda adored his talent and joie de vivre enough to tolerate his licentiousness, but the only clue as to why she settled for such an arrangement is the mention of her first husband's physical abuse. For his part, it appears that Porter was chiefly impressed by Linda's great concern for his own welfare (which he shared) and meager concern for her own (ditto). (Undoubtedly Kline is charming and Judd dazzling, so perhaps we're meant to understand that the rich, debonair, and beautiful naturally belong together.)

This oh, so heartwarming story is recounted in flashbacks during a visit from the angel Gabriel to an aged Porter, which jarring plot device doesn't improve the film's effect. Its principal function appears to be to explain the many musical numbers, but I say if you're going to make a musical, even in this day and age, make a damn musical and don't apologize for it. In addition, after enduring scene after scene of Porter's inconsideration, it feels uncomfortably right that the inveterate S.O.B. would spend his last moments hallucinating about God giving him the chance to reflect that while he might have been a better man, he was always loved, admired, and full of fun.

Screenwriter Jay Cocks appears to excuse Porter's behavior and embrace his marriage because he made delightful music (which is, mercifully, kept at the fore) and because he suffered later in life. Since Linda would probably not have accepted his affairs had they involved women, one might speculate that his sexuality is also meant to earn him forgiveness, as if it's wrong to censor a man for following the dictates of his appetite or cite him for offerings he might have made his wife if only his hormones had allowed it. This is, of course, absolute rubbish, and no amount of eye and ear candy can hide it. In particularly low times even Linda admits as much, lamenting that all the sorrow he brought upon them (mostly her) is countered only by music; and when she tells a blackmailer that he destroys while her husband creates, you have to wonder how much she believes it.

I greatly enjoy Cole Porter's music (my squareness is such that I knew all the songs in the picture but only a few of the reputedly famous people who sing them), and I hope that I can put the film's implications about his work behind me. "De-Lovely" uses Porter's legacy to glorify the spectacle of a man content to torment the woman he (supposedly) loves and a woman content to let him do it, and I de-cry that as de-pressing and de-spicable.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.