A tv-movie in cinemas

There's a small problem in Behind the candelabra. The latest work directed by Steven Soderbergh it's just a tv-movie for the HBO channel. Not a film for the cinemas.

With all the admired tv-series it could be hard to understand why this is a problem. The excellent qualities of this shows or tv-series are designed exclusively for the tv spectators. An audience that doesn't pay (or not to much) to see what it's on the tv. The want quality but they not required perfection, even when some shows they offer it. The stereotype of a tv-series, and more if it's a biopic it's simple: it has to be emotional, it has to be tough or sensitive, tell us about a life problem to fight (drugs, poverty, fame, illness,... all together). The spectator doesn't require a fidelity of the facts if the show satisfy them expectations.

Behind the candelabra does it. And does it well. It has all the components, plus a good budget, a good director who use all his skills to do a dignified product, a cast full of Hollywood stars (Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe,...), a good story to tell about a L.A. star, Liberace, a great piano player who sold out most of their shows every night during years just with a piano and his fancy dresses, his private life that try to hide (he was gay),... Everything is good, and the interpretation of Michael Douglas is more than that, it's excellent. He uses his body, his face, his measured gays gestures to become Liberace and do his character a person bigger than life.

We even can say that this biopic it's important in a economic crisis like that. Soderbergh shows us this rich life of the last century, the opulence, the bright, the glitter, the huge parties, spendings, and luxury way of life that this show business used to have when "behind the candelabra" there were lives really sad to hide, movie stars like Liberace's or Rock Hudson (as the movie shows too at the end) and more who have to do weird things like adopt his partner as a child, married with a woman whom never meet,... But now, we all know about this. Maybe the best part it's the one that explains how famous people live for themselves, create their own world, their own couples and play with them to be satisfied, how the lion hunts the zebra to eat it up, how the victim becomes part of the world of fame and it's devoured by all the luxuries and facilities. We heard about it before, and we see it everyday in the magazines.

No problem with all of that. All makes Behind the candelabra a great tv-movie, but just a good film. The audience from UK or the rest of the world who can see the last work from Steven Soderbergh in the cinemas will expect if not the same, a rhythm as in his movies, not franzy but fast, who explains the things in the proper time, because for good or bad Hollywood has created them like that. And we don't know if it's because the director thinks that movie for a tv channel or not but the thing is that he didn't go that far as the story can go. It's plane, nothing new it's told, not the sex images, not irony, not sense of humor at all,... No problem with all of that if you see it in your tv at home, but we, the audience, expect more from a movie and specially from this director who makes us thrill in our seats. Long, long time ago.

Trailer: