How sad is this?

Great Film overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

Brilliant and touching

Awful movie that just doesn't get it right in my book.I think the main problem is the way the story is portrayed. Trying to be a kind of Meet Joe Black that Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins did so brilliantly, it just doesn't work here at all.Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd are very good but struggle to make this in any way interesting. Jonathan Pryce is awful, but then again he seems to spoil every movie he is in. By far the worst Bond villain ever.There are lots of musical cameos featuring British singers that again just do not work. Robbie Williams sang and looked OK but Mick Hucknall just didn't look right at all.This could have been a good movie but sadly it isn't.

...I did not have "Night and Day" as a comparison. I loved "Night And Day" starring Cary Grant because it focused on the marvelous music of Cole Porter and that is why I enjoy watching Night And Day whenever it's on Turner Classic Movies.I was very disappointed with De-Lovely, which I had eagerly anticipated seeing because of Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd in the leads. However, although Porter's homosexuality was included in the film, it seemed to permeate the entire film as if this was all that mattered. His wonderful music took a back seat and that ruined the movie for me. Cole Porter was a truly amazing composer and De-Lovely seemed to totally forget about that, whereas Night And Day did not.If I see De-Lovely scheduled on TV, I avoid it because of the lack of emphasis on the genius of Cole Porter. Cole Porter's homosexuality was part of him as an individual but it is his amazing music which is what made Mr. Porter so important. I don't believe anyone - not even the great John Lennon - wrote lyrics more clever than those that Porter came up with.

De-Lovely is excellent. I am pretty surprised that there are no Academy award nominations for it. The sound track is simply wonderful. Cole Porter's life is biographically and aesthetically portrayed by the director. The two leads, Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, are perfectly cast and perform beyond perfection in it. That this is a mixture of gay and straight relational behavior in the same man is deftly depicted, and represents the period well. The sets and the choreography in many of the song and dance numbers brought me back to brighter times. A few of the singing extras did not quite capture the period perfectly, perhaps (Ms Morissette comes to mind), but the songs are all so wonderful, so that it is easy to forget. The director, Irwin Winkler, had to try to make a biographical tale depicting the music the man created in his lifetime, which he did wonderfully, while all the time giving the leads free reign to portray real human beings who loved each other, while continually pondering who, exactly, they themselves really were. Mr Winkler uses something of an artist's brush to pull this thing off so well. Not an easy task given the hidden (gay) subject matter of Cole Porters other life.

I wanted to think of a wittier summary but "rubbish" pretty much sums it up.Kline portrays Porter with the same shallow, prissiness that he applied to his character in "In & Out". He does self-obsessed and superficial very well...which is more than can be said for his singing.The bio-pic is inaccurate and misleading. Nothing I have read about Porter would lead me to believe that Linda was the great love of his life or that she inspired his lyrics. So the "love story" aspect was a non-starter from the get-go.The idea of Porter watching his life played out on stage was an interesting premise but the execution was woeful. Especially the big finish with "Blow, Gabriel! Blow!" which was embarrassingly bad.Why James Wilby, Kevin McNally or Keith Allen got involved I do not know. Their characters were so superfluous.I nearly switched off after fifteen minutes. In the event, I should have trusted my nose. It could smell a stinker from the start.