De-lovely

De-Lovely is a fascinating and lively musical biog about the life of Cole Porter which will certainly be admired by lovers of Cole Porter and period musicals. Accessible and enjoyable, Irwin Winkler’s lively drama sees Kevin Kline (A fish called wanda, Dave) playing Porter and Ashley Judd (Double Jeopardy, Kiss the Girls) playing his long-suffering wife Linda Lee.

A story told entertainingly after Porter has died, sees Porter looking back over his life in an empty theatre with a theatre director Gabe (Jonathan Pryce) who is directing a stage version of Porter’s life. In this stylised but affectionate portrait of Porter, the two of them look back over incidents in Porter’s life in a chronological order.

We hear about Porter’s creation of great musicals and also about his private life, his growing love for the charming and effervescent Linda Lee is shown in great detail, his penchant for dalliances with young boys, perhaps conveniently is less prominent.

There are some glittering musical numbers played by the likes of Robbie Williams, Elvis Costello, Alanis Morrisette and Sheryl Crow. Much of the delight of watching them at work is seeing them perform in a different light, complete with period costume and 20’s panache.

Ultimately you’re left feeling this is a fairly sanitized portrayal of Porter which like the Sellers’ film, focuses on the nature of genius and the unpredictable paths that talent can follow. Also like Sellers, was the fact that Cole Porter was an undisputed genius but showed obvious and unnecessary neglect towards his marriage. Not perhaps for everyone (you’ve got to have some sort of interest in Porter to really get something out of it), it will certainly satisfy all lovers of High Society and Anything Goes.

Matt Arnoldi