It's De-Odd

It was snowing lightly this morning when I awoke. As with the last couple of times it snowed, the snow was very fine and delicate and didn't last for very long. Even so, I spent the morning working on editing this month's Monkees role play until most of the snow had vanished from my porch. It might be just as well that I waited to do my errands. A very bundled-up mailman brought a small package on my porch this morning. The maple syrup I bought with my Vermont Country Store gift card had arrived! You can't beat the real thing. I got it too late for today's breakfast; I'll make pancakes tomorrow.

I went to the Haddon Township Library for this week's volunteer session around 11:30. I did the children's DVDs and pulled out PG-rated films for the librarians to re-categorize. (The head librarian had apparently decided to move all movies rated PG to the adult section, no matter how "kiddie" they seem in subject matter. Actually, that's fine by me. Makes for less confusion and more room for the actual kid's stuff.) I also took out two Disney comic books and two DVDs, the only Backyardigans DVD the library had that I hadn't seen yet, and the 2004 Kevin Kline Cole Porter biography De-Lovely. I stopped at Super Fresh for broccoli and leeks for dinner and at the dollar store for a shower curtain and cheap Sweet n' Low afterward.

I watched both when I got home while I cleaned and dusted around the windows. The Backyardigans' Tale of the Mighty Knights is a double-length story that concerns Uniqua and Tyrone's attempt to rescue King Pablo's runaway egg from the Grabbing Goblin (Austin), the Flighty Fairy (Tasha), and the Dragon Mountain, where even the bravest knights have never dared to venture! (And I have now heard enough egg puns to last me two lifetimes.) I've seen the western spoof Blazing Paddles several times, but not another genre spoof, Garbage Trek, the kids' take on the Star Trek franchise. Captain Tasha and her crew Austin and Uniqua roam the galaxy in search of trash to throw away. Aliens Pablo and Tyrone have a very different use for it - to power their ship!

De-Lovely ran during dinner, and it proved to be de-strange. Hollywood's second attempt at a biography of 30s-40s playboy composer Cole Porter (after the so-so 1946 Night and Day), it's not as bad as many critics claimed, but it's a bit muddled. On the plus side, Kevin Kline was obviously having the time of his life as Porter. Ashley Judd did what she could with the difficult role of Porter's long-time wife/best friend/muse Linda. I didn't have as many problems as many of the critics did with the modern jazz, rock, and R&B talents who performed Porter's songs on the soundtracks. (Natalie Cole's "Every Time We Say Goodbye" was particularly impressive.)

A lot of the biography is way off. For example, Nelson Eddy did sing a Porter song in a 1937 MGM movie musical...but the song was "Rosalie," performed in the film of that title to dancer Eleanor Powell, not "I Love You" performed to Jeanette MacDonald in 1936's "Rose Marie." "I Love You" was written for the 1944 Broadway musical "Mexican Hayride." (Eddy also introduced "In the Still of the Night," which is performed earlier in the film.) And while it's true that character actor and long-time Porter friend Monty Wooley did make a bet with Porter to write the sappiest song he could think of for low-brow Louis B. Mayer, the song he wrote was "Rosalie"...and it was a hit, much to Porter's surprise and Mayer's delight.

On the other hand, I didn't have the problems with the way they portrayed Porter as bisexual instead of out-and-out gay. I've always thought Linda and Cole's relationship was odd but almost sort of sweet. For all his sexual preferences and snotty and outrageous behavior (Porter was said to be a snob to anyone who wasn't a member of his smart set in real life), he did truly love Linda and was devastated when she died in the early 50s. He wrote three more hit shows, two movies, and a TV score after she died, but much of the spark apparently died with her, and he passed on in seclusion and in pain.

My biggest problem with the film was the annoying structure. It's presented as Cole Porter's life done in flashback, with Jonathan Pryce as a god/director character who narrates the story and goads the elderly Cole. I thought the stage wrap-around segments were more annoying than interesting and really detracted from the main story, not to mention Pryce has always creeped me out.