Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Thirteen years before he played Odysseus, Matt Damon was somehow playing Liberace's loveboy, Scott Thorson. As I watched the movie, I was into the story, but I felt like the movie was only scratching the surface, just telling us part of the story. But since the script is based on Thorson's memoirs, that makes sense.

Who was Liberace? Well, I'm still not sure I know, really, but Michael Douglass's performance is amazing. He has the look and mannerisms. Everything about Liberace's relationship with Thorson, and apparently all the boys who came before him, is so incredibly wrong. The age difference, the power difference. Liberace doesn't come off as a "groomer," but he definitely took a vulnerable young man and "trapped" him in, what? A relationship of some sort -- Liberace himself didn't seem to know what he wanted -- to be a dad, a friend, a lover. Somehow, he thought it was okay to be all of the above, but he also must have known what he was doing was incredibly wrong, because he worked hard to keep it all a secret.

Maybe my favorite unexpected character is Rob Lowe's portrayal of

Dr. Jack Startz. What a sleezy plastic surgeon. Did he ever get what was coming to him? I guess finding out was outside of the scope of the film. Google says that he ended up committing suicide in May 1985, because, at least in part to his declining reputation and his connect to Liberace.

The film also doesn't go that in depth about Thorson's $100 million dollar palimony suit. Thorson settled cheaply, quickly, and out of court, but couldn't he have made more money selling his story, and why wasn't Liberace willing to do more to keep the story out of the public eye?

After all Thorson had been through, the deathbed scene was unexpected, as was the "dream sequence" at the funeral. We're left with the idea that as messed up as this relationship was, maybe these to messed up individuals really did love each other?

Rating: 4/5 stars

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