A valiant effort but not entirely my cup of tea

Rating: 7/10 (20 September 2013)

As much of a history guy I am, I know virtually nothing about Liberace. So this was literally my first experience of whom Liberace was. I can't even say whether or not it was accurate or not but from all accounts it sounds like this is the best possible dramatization of what his private life may have been. It is a good film, it is a good TV Movie, but it doesn't floor me in any way. At two hours long I feel like focusing the entire film on Liberace's relationship with Scott Thorson rather than at least a little bit about Liberace's career. But I understand this film is truly meant to document their relationship. In many ways it is a riveting story that is often hard to watch and its like being a fly on the wall of an extremely dysfunctional relationship. There are some powerhouse performance in the film that it wasn't until the film was over that I truly began to think about and appreciate. This isn't the film to advocate gay relationships because the two of them are like oil and water and this is an incredibly dysfunctional affair. The film has several familiar faces in cameo and supporting roles but surprisingly enough hardly any of them really stand out and make a solid go at their roles.
Michael Douglas is Liberace himself. I wasn't sure at first that I liked his performance, I found him kind of irritating and then when I read a little bit about Liberace I think maybe he actually nailed the role. Douglas looks terrific and has some truly great scenes and certainly at least deserves his Emmy Nomination. However, I believe that Matt Damon takes the cake for best performance in this film. If its not completely certain than the last half of the movie proves how good he is. This might be one of Damon's best performances and he gives a disturbing and erratic performance as Liberace's lover Scott Thorson. Despite Scott Bakula seeming to get top credits in the film, his role is barely a cameo and there isn't anything special about the part. I was also very disappointed in the small role played by Dan Akroyd. He is in a few scenes and just looks bored and acts boring. What a disappointing turn from a talented and iconic actor. Debbie Reynolds plays Liberace's mother and does a decent job but the role is excruciatingly small (another example of something they could have focused more on.)
I have seen more than enough Steven Soderbergh movies now to sort of understand him as a director. He really does enjoy telling a bloated story. From the atrocity of film-making that was Magic Mike, Solaris, and Haywire to brilliance like Erin Brockovich or Side Effects, he doesn't hold back in telling as much of a story as he wants to...whether it drags it down or not. He doesn't seem to have a very good handle on pacing when it comes to film. Behind the Candelabra ran at least twenty minutes too long and started to stumble in several places. Liberace fans and older movie goers might be more than turned away by the fact that this is strictly about his bizarre and dysfunctional gay relationship rather than what Liberace was or his career in any way. Still as I said in the title, this was a valiant effort, especially for Damon and Douglas and it was interesting to watch. I suppose it just wasn't entirely my thing but it falls somewhere in the mediocre range of Soderbergh's projects. 7/10