What makes Behind the Candelabra work: doesn’t feel like most tv bio flicks where there is a checklist of notable events, and the actors go through the motions reenacting those events. Very emotionally honest movie with a certain joie de vivre even as it hits the more conventional relationship “and then the music died” notes. Unlike Queen of Versailles, the opulence doesn’t seem gaudy, excessive or self-indulgent, but a natural public outlet for keeping other parts hidden and rational considering Liberace’s career. The film doesn’t Philadelphia (yes, I’m using the movie title as a verb) the issue of sexuality, but it is not explicit (except in language) which IS shocking considering that it is a HBO production. There is nudity, but does not hit Spartacus series levels. The acting was great except for when Douglas inevitability and continuously kept slipping back into his normal voice, but I am still disappointed that in a world where openly gay actors rarely get employed, I don’t think one was employed in this film as an extra. The film deals with the worse parts of Liberace and Scott without detracting from their positives. There is some weirdness where a viewer may give the screen side eye or rationalize that they were trying to legally and socially cope with a situation that was not protected by the law, but I think that it was more than that and POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
an emotional incest and exploitation, which made sense with respect to Scott’s history, but I was curious about what influenced Liberace to go there.