Years ago I met an older woman at a gay bar who was fun, sophisticated and quick with the compliments. We hit it off and hung out together for months. Finally, one night she confessed that she had fallen in love with me. 'But I'm gay,' I said, stunned. 'I don't care. I've been married to two gay men. It doesn't matter to me.' She meant it. The relationship didn't progress into a romance but an overriding but subtle control started to appear. 'Let's not invite him, darling,' she would say, 'Let's just us two go to dinner' or the theatre or wherever. Within weeks I was drowning in the phone calls, presents, letters, notes, and need for attention-love-notice-me oxygen of this woman.
'A love that would never die and music that would live forever' is the catch phrase that's being used to market De-Lovely, the lavish life story of gay composer Cole Porter and his 'unconventional' relationship with his wife of 35 years, Linda. Would it be 35 years of 'Let's just us two go to dinner' I wondered as the film began?
On the surface it would seem so and seen in those terms, Cole and Linda Lee Porter (Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd) were the ultimate fag and hag. As the movie tells it, despite Linda's subtle admonishments and behind-the-scene machinations, Cole Can't Help Himself and soon he's drawn to the male fleshpots in Venice, New York and most vividly in Hollywood (where at a basement gay bar we glimpse a dyke couple waltzing around amid the hustlers) as his songs are belted out onscreen by everyone from Robbie Williams to Alanis Morissette.
Adding the pop stars to the movie is a blatant product placement for The Kids and works to varying degrees—the male crooners —Williams, Elvis Costello and John Barrowman, for example, handle the Porter songs much better than the ladies. Sheryl Crow, especially, delivers a horrific 'Begin The Beguine' and Diana Krall, as always, seems to sleep while singing (she's given 'Just One Of Those Things').
For Cole's repeated sin of homosex he's crushed by a horse and Linda, sensing that she's finally, finally needed for more than doling out cigarette cases and playing hostess, returns to take charge of his recovery. Soon she's picked out a house in Connecticut, far away from the boys. But knowing Cole's true nature, and dying of cancer anyway, sets him up with her male decorator, who looks spectacular in a light blue sweater and white linen pants.
'I wanted every kind of love I could get,' Cole says about his desire for men early on and apparently, he wanted it again and again and again. Linda, seemingly chaste, stays because either Cole is the 'rhythm of her heart' (which she expresses), she likes the reflected glory of Porter's celebrity or just digs his songs. As the film goes on, the story of a woman settling for less than what she deserves for reasons that aren't fully understood or explained becomes much more interesting than Cole picking up yet another trick.
With the spectacular Judd in the role, the resentment I felt toward the Cole character grew with each passing flirtation. Judd's dual combination of sexiness and fierce intelligence make it hard to watch her Linda Lee Porter literally die on the vine. Judd has the rare ability to instantly cut to the core of her character's emotions and her rapport with an audience is the key to her success as an actress. She engenders a lot of sympathy simply because she's not afraid to tap into those emotions. It's terrific to see this beautiful woman dressed in the gorgeous Armani period clothes and she does her best to flesh out a character that on closer examination seems like a smothering, well-meaning 'gal pal.'
Kline, who is one of those performers you cannot dislike, is a wonderful actor and does excellent work here but is the wrong choice to play the über sophisticate Cole Porter. Kline's persona was much better suited to the closeted gay Howard Brackett in the hilarious In & Out. I had trouble matching up the razor sharp wit of the songs with Kline's characterization of the man who created them.
The life story of Cole Porter would seem to promise all the fun those bouncy songs with their sparkling sophistication and bitchy reparteé delivers and it's in evidence here from time to time. But the fun of the first half gives way to the slow decline of the second. One does not want to go into a movie called De-Lovely and come out feeling De-pressed.
____
Local Screenings: Godzilla is back in this 50th birthday version that is uncut/uncensored and has 40 minutes of additional footage. At the Music Box through July 8. www.musicboxtheatre.com
Chicago Filmmakers continues its Dyke Delicious Series with 'Four Faces Of Eve: Lesbian Images On Screen And Off,' short films that includes one about Jodie Foster. Saturday, July 10. See Web site www.chicagofilmmakers.org
New DVD's of Note: Laughing Matters is a hilarious on/offstage documentary on lesbian comics Kate Clinton, Marga Gomez, Suzanne Westenhofer, and Karen Williams. From Wolfe Video [and on Here! TV in July].
Maggie Smith's first Oscar-winning performance is the best thing about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the latest release the Fox Classics Edition series. Many special features make this a must-have DVD
