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De-Lovely (2004)

tomatometer

48

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 155
Fresh: 74 | Rotten: 81

Musical numbers save movie from cliches.

43

Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 23

Musical numbers save movie from cliches.

audience

62

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 9,930

My Rating

Movie Info

The public and private lives of famed songwriter Cole Porter are both explored in this musical drama, in which the aging Porter (played by Kevin Kline) looks back on his life while watching a rehearsal of a stage musical based on his story. As Porter compares notes on the play with director Gabe (Jonathan Pryce), he shares thoughts on his rise to fame in the mid-'20s, writing witty and sophisticated tunes for a string of successful Broadway musicals. Porter seemed to be living a charmed life

PG-13, 2 hr. 5 min.

Drama, Musical & Performing Arts, Comedy

Jay Cocks

Dec 21, 2004

$13.1M

United Artists

Cast

All Critics (160) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (76) | Rotten (83) | DVD (21)

The results ... are staid, with re-creations of Paris in the Jazz Age and Hollywood in its Golden Age that are like waxworks in motion.

August 7, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It is stiff, lifeless and incomprehensibly dull.

July 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A wildly uneven musical biography of Cole Porter.

July 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Comment
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Porter's songs keep much the film afloat when, otherwise, it would have sunk. No matter how turgid or murky the movie becomes, when the music starts, you're flying.

July 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Entertaining. With more than 30 Cole Porter songs and an accomplished cast, how can it not be?

July 16, 2004 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The story is sad. The music is witty, wary, impassioned and delightful. The balance is what makes De-Lovely special.

July 16, 2004 Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Unfortunately, the film's post-modern staginess assists in keeping Porter endlessly at arm's length. [Blu-ray]

May 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

Winkler indulges a large amount of screentime detailing these sexual leanings and complications, which disrupts the picture's balance between wannabe musical and straight up bio-pic.

May 3, 2011 Full Review Source: BrianOrndorf.com | Comment
BrianOrndorf.com

The music is de-lovely, but not much else is.

December 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

More imagination than inquiry, this cautiously reverential tale reaches for aesthetic pleasure and emotion over insight.

June 1, 2007 Full Review | Comment
Long Island Press

More imagination than inquiry, this cautiously reverential tale reaches for aesthetic pleasure and emotion over insight.

May 24, 2007 Full Review | Comment
Long Island Press

If you ignore the plot and just approach the flick as nothing more than a 21st century update of a Busby Berkeley-style musical, you will not be disappointed.

May 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Princeton Town Topics | Comment
Princeton Town Topics

Performances crackling with an enthusiasm that indicates how much Porter's work continues to be loved and respected.

September 22, 2006 Comment

Elegante e esteticamente admirável, este musical é um pouco mais longo do que deveria, mas as belas canções e os complexos planos concebidos por Winker acabam compensando.

May 5, 2005 Comment
Cinema em Cena

The production numbers recap Porter's life using his own music. The concept is nothing if not original but it's the execution that causes the greatest strife.

April 17, 2005 Comment
Oscar Guy
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for De-Lovely

The music, so vividly emphasized, made this film more of a musical in itself than a biopic of Cole Porter, a man whose life was riddled with rumors, infidelities, and the his love for his soulmate, Linda. In short, it was almost a musical written by Oscar Wilde.

April 4, 2010
FrizzDrop

Super Reviewer

The acting and music are really good, but focuses way too much on his homosexual interests and weird-as-hell personal life. God bless Ashley Judd.

December 13, 2008
middleeasternfilms
Derek Daniels

Super Reviewer

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