it's de-pressing, it's de-sultory, it's de-lovely

De-Lovely is not the first, nor probably even the most famous, Cole Porter biopic. Night and Day covered this ground way back in 1946, with Cary Grant as Cole, and Michael Curtiz at the helm.

De-Lovely even refers to Night and Day as a sort of turning point in Cole's career. Honestly, though, Cole's 1948 musical Kiss Me Kate hardly constitutes a comeback for the man who gave us:

• What Is This Thing Called Love?
• Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)
• Begin the Beguine
• Be A Clown
• Anything Goes
• Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye
• In the Still of the Night
• and Night and Day.

These songs are what make De-Lovely worth watching (or, at least, listening to). But, as talented as Elvis Costello, Natalie Cole, Sheryl Crow, and, yes, Alanis Morissette are, their covers only reminded me of how much better Ethel Merman, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Frank Sinatra were at belting out these standards.

Of course, Kevin Kline is no Cary Grant. While he does put in a credible performance, Kline's peculiar mannerisms are ever-present, keeping me keenly aware that it's not actually Cole Porter I'm watching.

De-Lovely director Irwin Winkler managed somehow to make Ashley Judd look old and not-so-very attractive. Perhaps he was going for a typical Jazz-age look, but even Scorsese managed to pull this off and still keep Cate and Kate from looking old.

But all this is just nitpicking. The real issue is that Winkler decided to portray Cole's life as cynical, depressing, and unfulfilled. While I don't doubt this was the case (he did go to Yale), it's not what I'm looking for in a musical. That's the real reason musicals have been all but dead for forty years now. Most Hollywood musicals, like almost all Hollywood movies, have gotten gritty since the late 60's.

Movie musicals need fantasy to make them work. It's just not acceptable to modern audiences (outside of India) for a basically dramatic storyline to stop for a song-and-dance number. It takes a rare talent (Baz) these days to dazzle us out of our cynicism. Winkler, who won an Oscar for producing Rocky, just can't go the distance.