De-Lovely unfolds as a somewhat muddled "This Is Your Life" rendering of the life, loves, and works of composer Cole Porter. A play-within-a-movie trope, in which a musical comedy of Porter's life is directed by a messenger angel (the unmusical Jonathan Pryce) allows contemporary interpreters (Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, and others) to rub up against a period-authentic narrative.

Ashley Judd does best, as the steely beauty Linda Lee, who married Porter despite his homosexual reputation and who (or so the film tells us) willed his talent into fruition.

The best musical sequence comes when Kevin Kline as Porter sings the achingly beautiful "So In Love" to Linda, accompanied only by piano. Kline has a trained but unperfected voice (as was Porter's), and his version stands out against the stagey reading that we hear from the reenacted Broadway production of Kiss Me, Kate. The Porters are in the twilight of their lives together; it's a moment for tears.

posted: 4:02:24 PM  

Jan Thorn-Prikker interviews Gerhard Richter about his new book, War Cut. The book's images are details from Richter's 1987 abstract "squeegee" painting No. 648-2, and its text consists of newspaper articles from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung at the outbreak of the Iraq War.

posted: 3:30:25 PM