Suffice to say in this movie you will see Liberace's house and all its splendour. Notable other standouts were how boring and isolating a life they lived. How all consuming Liberace's need to be isolated and controlling of his current protege would have been.
An all-star cast has Michael Douglas portraying Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, as the leads, and a supporting cast including Rob Lowe, Debbie Reynolds, Dan Aykroyd and Scott Bakula ( well know by Stargate and Star Trek: Enterprise fans). With this calibre of actors one would expect to be transported to this world of glamour and stardom. Sadly, I found this did not happen for me. I sat there distracted by the makeup, and trying to figure out what it was about their performance that left me unconvinced.
The make up by the way was distracting because it seemed incredibly thick on the actors who were inside of the Liberace circle, but didn't seem right somehow, the exception was Bob black (Bakula) who took a little time for me to recognise due to his wig and 70s moustache. However, the make up for the post facelifts were incredible, the skin had a taughtness and shinyness of a bad facelift.
Ultimately I just found myself wondering just how much like Liberace did Douglas sound, and I went and googled various things anout Scott while I was watching the movie because I just wasn't taken in by it.
It is important to note that this story was created by Scott Thorson, and we see it from his perspective, so Liberace is portrayed in the light of someone who was deeply hurt by him, perhaps this is where the real problem lies. We learn that Scott was quickly seduced by Liberace and made many promises, that seem to come true, and Liberace was in complete control over all his affairs. Scott would be discarded, like all the others that had come before him. It is portrayed that Scott had all the other staff fired and thus remained longer with Liberace than the others because he was willing to become "everything" to Liberace. This lifestyle is not sustainable and the relationship becomes troubled.
It's not until the very end of the movie that we are actually shown that any real love existed between them, and for me this is the most distracting thing of the movie, I expected a love story, I got a business transaction, which left me looking at the movie for more, and it just didn't have it.
I'm glad I only rented it, but go hire it out and see what you think :)
As always I'd love to hear your opinion on this movie.
