Filled with bad homosexual stereotypes!

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2013)

'BEHIND THE CANDELABRA': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)
Supposedly director Steven Soderbergh's last film is this made-for-TV biopic about the last ten years of Liberace's life and his six-year affair with Scott Thorson. Michael Douglas stars as Liberace and Matt Damon also stars as Thorson. Richard LaGravenese wrote the screenplay, which is based on the autobiographical book ('Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace') by Thorson and Alex Thorleifson. The performances are great and the makeup is really impressive but the movie as a whole is too dark and depressing.
The film begins in 1977 when Scott Thorson (Damon) was just 17. He had grown up in multiple foster homes and was then working as an animal trainer for films. He meets a producer named Bob Black (Scott Bakula), at a gay bar, and Black then introduces him to the famous pianist Liberace (Douglas), backstage at one of his shows. Liberace was a sex obsessed (but closeted) homosexual who was immediately attracted to the young Thorson (who was bisexual). He throws his current lover (and musical protégé), Billy Leatherwood (Cheyenne Jackson), out on the streets and seduces Scott, while also offering him a job. Scott leaves his adoptive parents and moves in with Liberace, who totally begins controlling his life (including altering his face, through plastic surgery, to look like him).
I'm not a fan of biopics (although the ones I've seen recently, before this one, have been better than those of years past) and I didn't enjoy this film for that reason (as well as many others). I found the Liberace character to be way too unlikeable and the film itself to be way too disturbing and sad. The way Liberace preyed on a teen, Scott Thorson, and ruined his life is just devastating. If it's true to life than I understand the filmmakers' intentions but I don't think the movie offers anything of emotional or inspirational value. It's just a very dark and gloomy look at life in the celebrity world (it's also filled with a lot of bad homosexual stereotypes). Douglas and Damon are outstanding in their roles (like I said), the makeup is amazing and Soderbergh's directing is once again topnotch but I didn't care for the characters or story at all.
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