Not a fan of Liberace or kitsch or camp ... BUT

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2014)

this movie works and works well.
When you see a movie starring Michael Douglas as Liberace, Matt Damon as his gay lover/chauffeur/boy Friday/what have you, and Rob Lowe as their perfectly Hollywood zombie plastic surgeon, you just HAVE to watch it ... there is no way any kind of movie fan can not not watch this. Those three actors alone in most any movie would make it a pretty solid "maybe" and would cause you to read up on the plot, etc, before you commit to going to the theatre to see it. But certainly, if it is not a movie you think it is worth the $50 to see in a theatre then it is a rental for sure.
I didn't see it in the theatre ... i laughed reading the casting list and the blurb but that's not enough for a theatre excursion.
But man am i glad i saw it on rental. I've even watched it twice truth be told and that is something i recommend because there are some little things (or bigger things even) that you miss and make it an even more hilarious and darker comedy. Just watching Rob Lowe sit there sedated just below a level suitable for surgery is a laugh out loud moment (more than one more actually).
Having grown up in the 60s and 70s i was of course exposed to Liberace. This was during the age of variety shows and spectacular TV specials. So with three networks channels and a public television station and luckily since i grew up near chicago, we also had wgn (good for Ray Rayner and Cubs baseball) ... so Liberace was a big name for these kinds of things and without much of a selection or much say-so in what channel was on the TV (this was back when a parent could backhand you for looking at them funny ... and now they wonder why parents raised like that respond to their own kids in the same way ... yeah ... difficult to figure out the line that leads to a heavy hand in childrearing) ... so if you wanted to watch TV you had plenty of exposure ...
but this is the back story ... all that money he made was good since he had plenty leftover after covering up all of the things he didn't want the general public to know ... i don't remember if the supermarket tabloids were saying or alleging that Liberace was gay back then but his 'eternal search' for that 'perfect bride' had to be a thin veneer out in las vegas and Hollywood ... in the midwest tho, homosexuals were considered well, not exactly likely where agriculture and steel manufacturing were the predominant industries ...
anyway, it's pretty interesting to see the behind the scenes stuff and while i don't know how accurate it is, for this movie, i don't care ... there's obviously enough truth to get it started and then the fun begins ...
really, don't miss this one just as a laugh out loud couple hours of some great work done by three pretty darned good actors who took on some difficult roles truth be told ... it's campy yes but it isn't silly and stupid .... they make the people they are portraying realistic no matter who nutty they may seem to us ...
btw, if the gay community is offended by this movie, i apologize i suppose for not having more sensitivity into what i could see might be considered as offensive as actors in black face would to African-Americans ... but it doesn't strike me that way tho i am not saying i am perfect and could be misreading it ...
anyway, it's a 10 on the laugh scale and another 10 for douglas, damon, and lowe pulling off some hysterical stuff