Film review: Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra skirts around gay issues

There's probably a good story behind Behind the Candelabra, which Steven Soderbergh claims will be his last film. Although it finally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, it had previously been turned down by all the major Hollywood studios. Soderbergh has suggested that Hollywood was afraid of its gay content, but after Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain and Milk, that seems a weak argument.

Perhaps the result simply shows that Soderbergh is getting tired of making movies. The story of flamboyant Las Vegas entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his young lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon with a lot of eyeliner) lacks the verve we've come to expect from the maker of Ocean's Eleven and Traffic.

The film is based on a book by Liberace's jilted plaything Thorson, so sympathy is with him. Chronicling his seduction, as a teenager, by the much older and richer celebrity, along with his fabulous "blingy" lifestyle, the high life is followed by the inevitable lows of living in a gilded cage and Thorson's own descent into drug addiction.

The production spares no expense on lavish sets, as well as a suitably tacky rhinestone wardrobe and some flashy jewellery. But the excess and accoutrements aren't accompanied by the cinematic dazzle to make Behind the Candelabra any more than a polite observation of a lurid celebrity lifestyle.