What to say about this one? It was too late to see another movie before the review deadline, so De-Lovely had to be it. But I’m still wondering whether this is a movie suitable for a Christian audience.
Maybe we can start by talking about what De-Lovely is about and go from there. Its framework is a series of regular conversations between an elderly Cole Porter and the director who’s making a musical about his life. Porter was born in 1891 and died in 1964. In that span of time he proved he was the consummate writer of songs and lyrics, particularly those that found their way onto the Broadway stage. Kevin Kline plays Cole, Ashley Judd plays his wife Linda, and Jonathan Pryce is Gabe, the director who’s making the show about his life.
On the plus side:
The movie’s beautiful structure: Each period of Porter’s career is punctuated by a discussion between the songwriter and the director about the appropriateness of the director’s staging of particular songs reflecting Porter’s life. This narrative device allows the character of Cole to comment on the events of his life with the perspective of distance. It’s a very effective blend of narration and scenes.
The acting and singing: All the performances are strong. It’s hard to believe that Kline is not really Cole Porter, and Ashley Judd is quite effective as Porter’s loving but suffering wife. The other stars act credibly and do a terrific job of performing the songs, all of which were of course written by Porter.
The songs themselves: They’re the core of the movie. We might be surprised to learn how many familiar songs were actually written by CP.
On the minus side:
The underlying attitude: In my view the measure of a movie is not the presence per se of objectionable events, language, etc., but the director’s attitude toward those events. De-Lovely’s underlying moral attitude is humanistic — basically, anything goes, so long as it fulfills you and makes you happy. Not surprisingly, one of Porter’s most famous songs is titled “Anything Goes.” I knew we were in trouble the minute the older Cole Porter said, “If I believed in God, I’d want him to be a song-and-dance man.” That was his problem: he apparently wasn’t a believer.
The language: Not too bad overall, but any examples of taking the Lord’s name in vain are atrocious.
The seductiveness of its worldly view. The Cole Porter character is treated sympathetically. His homosexual affairs and unfaithfulness to his wife are presented from a “Well-he-was-just-doing-his-thing” viewpoint. No moral comment is made or implied. The film seduces us because it juxtaposes enjoyable, beautifully performed music and morally repugnant behavior. This is perhaps the sort of thing the Apostle Paul has in mind when he cautions us not to love the world.
So: I don’t know whether to recommend this movie or not. It’s beautifully made, but … As Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes, we cannot expect anything outside of ourselves to provide us happiness or joy, which can come only from God. We realize this at the end of the film when we feel a great sense of sadness for Cole Porter, who is depressed and tired of life. As an object lesson, maybe De-Lovely is worthwhile.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 stars
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