The film deals with the story of Liberace and his teenage lover, Scott Thorson. The relationship between them seems to deteriorate completely when Liberace takes his colleagues in bed and Thorson becomes another drug addict already.
Buffed to a typical HBO high gloss, Candelabra is a visual feast. It shines brightest in those moments where it captures the rhythms of a relationship in its first blush of affection and its seemingly inevitable collapse.
Michael Douglas transforms himself into the Las Vegas entertainer with style and, most of all, believability. Liberace was larger-than-life to say the least, and it would be easy to go the SNL route with a character by painting him with broad strokes.
One of [Soderbergh's] strengths is in the way he subverts traditional narratives and finds interesting moments that other directors wouldn't think twice about.
