De-Lovely (USA/UK)

Having recently watched Amadeus, I was quite keen to see another autobiographical movie on the American composer Cole Porter. I had neither heard the name before nor did I know anything about his music but still I was looking forward to it. I must say that I wasn't disappointed. Embellished with great performances and quite high production values, the musical with a unique narration style, did keep my interest alive in the proceedings and overall the experience was very satisfactory.

When Cole Porter is about to die, his life flashes before him in a form of musical. It goes back to the time when he meets Linda, a beautiful attractive woman, whom he ends up marrying later. Linda is aware of Cole being gay and interest din men but her love and devotion is very strong and she choses to overlook that and even is ok with is flings outside marriage. She is the woman behind his success , who constantly reminds Cole how talented he is and even arranges for meetings with various bigwigs in NY and Hollywood who then contribute for Cole's success. But after a while, Linda os tired of her husband's constant philandering and their relationship goes strained. When COle is photographed in an embrace with another man in a rest room in a gay night club, both the estranged husband and wife are separately blackmailed. Cole is ok with it and still doesn't get his act together prompting Linda to leave him and go to Paris. When Cole is severely injured in a horseback riding accident, she comes back to take care of him, ignoring the fact that she herself if suffering from TB. Waiting for her impending death, she attempts to forge a relationship between him and her interior decorator so he'll have a companion following her death, which deeply affects him. The eventual amputation of his right leg adds to his deep depression, affecting his creative output.

Performances by both Cole and Linda is outstanding in my opinion. They both bring the charm, sensitivity, love and grace that their character demands. The musical number are kinda funny and are done really well. I am not much of  musical person when it comes to movies, but i did not mind this one. The film could have been trim me at various places. I liked the side story of COle's friend and his family and how that indirectly keeps Linda and Cole together. The movie, a valentine to an older way of life and of music, has a modern candor about homosexuality. Too bad it did not have more man to man scenes or occasions except most of them were more left to the viewers imagination.

The film is overall mostly delightful. (6/10)