According to a blurb I read yesterday in a free entertainment paper, Kevin Kline will star as Cole Porter, and Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, and Robbie Williams will perform songs in Just One of Those Things, an upcoming movie based on the life of Porter. What do you think? Can this possibly be any good?
If it’s any comfort, Cary Grant did that a while back. Maybe that’s what they’re banking on: a Grant/Kline connection.
It’s been a while since the TV thing for AIDS that featured k.d. lang, Bono, Aaron Neville, and bunches more mangling Porter songs in the “modern vein.” Tunes just didn’t sound right to me.
I doubt if they could botch it any worse than that, and some of those you mentioned (Krall and Costello at least) might even do some good stuff.
I do recall k.d.lang’s “So In Love” from that other thing was breathtaking.
Yeah, I saw that Cary Grant film some years ago. Night and Day, wasn’t it? As I recall, it was far more fiction than fact, and doesn’t stand out as one of Grant’s better efforts.
I looked up this Kevin Kline project on IMDB (it’s now in post production), and it doesn’t list character names for Costello and Crow. Krall and Morissette are both listed as “Singer.” Caroline O’Conner (from Moulin Rouge) is cast as Ethel Merman! Wonder if they’ll dub in Ethel’s voice?
Nonononono.
Cole Porter was an agreeable little troll of a man; kinda short and pudgy but cute. If they could tone down Nathan Lane, I could see him in the role; or maybe Philipm Seymour Hoffman.
I wondered what your take would be on this, Eve! Did you ever pick up that Cole Porter cd box set I told you about?
No . . . Still don’t have a CD player, actually . . .
Good God, what a travesty of casting. KK is oh so wrong. He’s just too damn tall and handsome.
ICKY ICKY
Kline is soo just NOT Cole Porter…
I love the the Red Hot & Blue Cd. Its on frequent rotation in my truck;)
Hopefully this movie will be somewhat more honest about Cole Porter’s life…
It could be delimit, or deluxe, or even delovely.
So was Annie Lennox singing Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, Sinead O’Connor covering You Do Something To Me, and Lisa Stansfield performing Down In The Depths.
Perhaps you have a tin ear.
I caught the end of this movie on TCM awhile ago. It seemed to be the story of a charming, straight, songwriter in NY who, oddly enough, wrote some of the exact same songs Cole Porter did, but otherwise had nothing to do with Porter (at least, what I know of him). I suppose Kevin Kline could reprise that role.
And I liked U2’s version of “Night and Day.”
Remember – Porter himself said Cary Grant should play the role, so a handsome actor like Kline is in line with Cole’s wishes.
It sounds like an interesting project – especially if it doesn’t ignore Porter’s homosexuality. I’d also love to see something about his relationship with his wife; they did seem to have a strong affection for each other, even though there was little sexual attraction.
Heck, if they made a movie of my life, I think George Clooney should play me. That doesn’t mean it’s the most suitable casting (or is it?)
Kline has already played Douglas Fairbanks–that was fairly appropriate casting. But the great CP? I dunno…
Senior or Junior?
It’s suitable casting if it makes a good movie.
The fact that the actor doesn’t look much like the historical figure hasn’t the slightest relevance if the movie is well done. If the movie is done poorly, the casting issue will be only one of many problems.
It could be that what you would consider a “tin ear” in my case could be applied to your own tastes if I were to attempt to set up some standard by which the rendition of Porter’s music would be measured. Unfortunately, taste is one of those things that doesn’t have a good accounting system, at least if you believe the old adage to that effect.
Having heard the likes of Sinatra and members of his generation render Porter’s songs for most of my life, I have a notion of how they ought to sound. When I hear the likes of some (notice I didn’t say all) of the performances on Red Hot & Blue where no effort was made to adhere to the original melody, and in some cases jettisoning the melody altogether, my reaction is to wince and classify those interpretations as unacceptable.
To MY tastes!
If your tastes differ, tally ho. Maybe your ear is attuned to the modern approach of providing new melodies or non-melodies to old standards. If so, enjoy.
And even though my wife enjoys our CD of Red Hot & Blue and even though it’s one that we carry on trips to listen to as we travel, it’s one that affects me the same way that some of the performances on Sinatra’s Duets records do. It’s just a style I don’t like.
And if the performances in the new Kline movie are of that same style, I won’t like them either. That doesn’t mean the majority of people in the current generation won’t lap that sort of thing up.
As for people better suited to play Porter, I would suggest William H. Macy, less for his sexual persuasion(s) (I have no idea what they are) than for his acting abilities and for a slight physical resemblance. He needs a role of that magnitude to demonstrate his superb acting abilities.
Hoffman is also good, but the wit and humor of Porter (maybe that’s why Kline is in the role – see A Fish Called Wanda) seems a bit out of Hoffman’s kit.
Senior. In Chaplin. Not a good movie, but some good casting (Robert Downey Jr. as Chaplin, Geraldine Chaplin as her own grandmother) mixed with the not-so-good (Dan Ackroyd as Mack Sennett, Moira Kelly as Oona).
Kevin Kline couldn’t act dead if you blew his brains out. His participation with doom the endeavor to failure.
Catch and Release: Synopsis of the Criminal Justice System
I wouldn’t mind blowing Kevin Kline’s brains out . . .
(Omigod, did I just say that?)
I thought it was Kevin Spacey protraying Cole Porter in a Bio-Movie not Kevin Klein.