Behind the Candelabra - review

As one of the best known piano players, Liberace was known for his flamboyance and camp style, yet despite this persona he never confirmed the rumours of his homosexuality and even successfully sued a newspaper who claimed he was gay.

However, as Behind the Candelabra shows, behind closed doors Liberace was known to enjoy the company of men and had a long term relationship with Scott Thorson, whose book this movie was based on.

At the start of the movie Scott (Matt Damon) is a teenager living with his foster parents on a ranch and enjoying his work with animals. With an active social life he strikes up a friendship with Bobbie after meeting him in a club and on an evening out they attend a concert of Bobbie’s friend Liberace (Michael Douglas). Invited back to his dressing room after the show, Scott & Lee (as he was known in his private life) share a spark for each other and after bonding over their love of animals, Scott is soon invited to live and work with Lee in Palm Springs.

Despite the age gap of 40 years their relationship goes from strength to strength, but Lee is aware that he is no longer the young man he once was and instructs a plastic surgeon to help him maintain his looks. But while Dr Startz (played by Rob Lowe) lists the procedures he will perform, Lee asks him to also help Scott and insists on his appearance becoming more like his own. Although he has reservations about changing his appearance, Scott knows Lee only wants the best for him and agrees to undergo the un-necessary surgery to please him – which in my opinion from the scenes in the movie makes him look ridiculous.

Fast forward a few years and with Scott hooked on diet pills and drugs after his surgery making him look like a carbon copy of Lee, he is now employed as Lee’s driver as well as being his lover and when Lee hints at the possibility of seeing other people to ‘freshen things up’, their relationship turns strained causing Scott to blend into the background of Lee’s life just like men before him.

As their relationship breaks down beyond repair, Scott & Lee separate but not before a tussle ensues over property and the promise that Lee was due to adopt Scott as his son. Yet despite their fraught relations, Scott receives a phone call from Lee a few years later asking him to visit.

With his former lover now bed bound due to the Aids virus, Scott is upset to find out he’s dying and realises that while they were still together, Lee did indeed spend time with other men. But although his disappointment is clear, while Scott attends Lee’s funeral he can’t help but cast his mind back to the first time he saw Lee perform and the moment they fell in love.

From Scott’s view point, Behind the Candelabra brings us the story of Liberace’s life with Scott which doesn’t hold back. From loneliness, drugs, financial difficulty and an ultimately loving relationship, I found this movie - which American movie bosses considered ‘too gay’ to realise in cinemas - a touching story of how someone so flamboyant can be so lonely in private, but also how demanding and self-centered the man seemed to be.