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| Michael Douglas and Matt Damon play Liberace and his lover, Scott Thorson |
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| HBO's film is based on Scott Thorson's memoir |
The story focuses on the relationship between Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his much younger lover, Scott Thorson (Matt Damon); I just watched the trailer which takes you from their flirtatious introduction to their unhappy ending. Michael Douglas really vamps it up Liberace style; I've got to give
him credit for being willing to look ridiculous. The 70's styles, the thick makeup of a vain, aging star - Liberace, not Douglas - the glitzy, glamorous costumes, the outrageously opulent lifestyle; it's all so over the top that this television movie will be either brilliant or it will be bad, just awfully, pathetically bad.
Director Steven Soderbergh is incredibly well respected in the industry and for very good reason; from his first feature Sex, Lies and Videotape which he both wrote and direct, to Magic Mike with The Limey, Michael Clayton, Haywire, Contagion, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, plus all three of the Oceans' movies and more, in between; his films speak for his talent. Richard La Gravanese (The Horse Whisperer, Water for Elephants, The Bridges of Madison County, The Fisher King) wrote the screenplay based on Thorson's book. Which means as trashy and campy as this looks in the trailer, chances are it's going to be highly entertaining, and probably more than a touch poignant.
Check out the trailer and see what you think. I can't believe how young Matt Damon looks in it - so shy and fawning when he meets Liberace! And do you recognize the actor who makes the introduction? Then there's Rob Lowe who plays the plastic surgeon asked by Liberace to make Thorson look like his younger self!!! - Lowe looks like his character's face has been pulled into faux tautness too - and Debbie Reynolds is almost unrecognizable as Liberace's mother.