Personae

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 2013)

"Mala Noche" may have given us an equally convincing picture of gay life and exploitation on the streets, but this one takes us into the upper reaches of celebrity. It's believable and grotesque.
I'm surprised that it was based on a book "by" Scott Thorson, Liberace's young lover with whom he had a falling out. The reason I'm surprised is that the film, which I'd have expected to be something like "Sugar Daddy Dearest", in fact portrays Liberace as a pathetic, sometimes almost saintly, old queen, while Scott Thorson changes from a young naif into a greedy Frankenstein's monster. Until the last scene, that is, when he has an epiphany and realizes what a truly nice guy his keeper was.
Well, we've seen love stories between wealthy older men and younger inamoratas ending in bitterness before. Robert DeNiro and Sharon Stone in "Casino" were more rambunctious in their separation. And Orson Welles and Dorothy Comingore were more ambiguous in "Citizen Kane." This flick follows the same trajectory, yet it's an important film for a number of reasons, aside from the splendid budget. One is that Michael Douglas does a magnificent impression of Liberace, believe it or not. And it's a wise career move. It's the first time we've seen him as anything other than an ordinary bourgeois, his first character role. It's a sagacious choice because Douglas is now a little too old for the usual leads in action or romantic movies. Only occasionally does he go a bit over the top -- not in his lines but in his non-verbal behavior, a little too much fluttering of hands, one mince more than is called for.
And Matt Damon is equally good as the loyal subordinate who becomes the petulant pet. A bisexual (he claims), he begins as an assistant dog wrangler in Hollywood movies, and winds up living in luxury, sipping wine from a tulip glass while naked in Liberace's jacuzzi. Then his increasing use of speed appears to drive him to excesses of an abusive kind, although I suspect that's just a pat explanation for a guy who became greedier as time passed. He has a face lift at Liberace's suggestion and he's not at all turned off by the notion, except that he insists a dimple be put in his chin, like Cary Grant or Michael's father.
The homosexuality isn't bothersome. There is some nudity and some non-explicit depictions of unnatural connections, but so what? We've all been there, one way or another. What makes the film so revolting is the rococo life style that Liberace has chosen for himself with his millions, and the way Damon apparently is awed by it, and the way Liberace himself seems to think it deserves public approbation. "These columns are real Roman -- ionic." As the chauffeur Damon is dressed in the outfit of a comic book hero with silver boots. If you thought that the tastes of Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley were as bad as it gets, you need to see this.
The viewer should keep in mind that this is what's called a "topical biography." It deals with the relationship between Liberace and Scott. The means some scandalous events are ablated, such as the woman Liberace used as a beard, who, in thrall of hypothetical imperatives, later sued his behind off.
It's competently directed by Soderbergh. The photography layers over almost every scene with pale gold and ivory, giving the impression of viewing an object suspended in an aspic made if Tang. The director steps wrong only twice. A couple of times the camera wobbles and zooms in and out of focus, a repellent fad that I hope is now on its way into the dustbin of history. And the end is a cop out. At Liberace's funeral service, Damon sits in the congregation, evidently in his original persona, no longer a bleached blond with a face permanently altered into a demonic mask. Liberace may not have gone out with much style, but his lover does.
There was, by the way, a terrific legal battle over the possession of Liberace's corpse, each jurisdiction crying for the celebrity that would go with holding onto the dead body. Brushed aside in the film, it's the sort of petty battle that makes someone like Liberace look perfectly representative of the human race.