Bio-pics are tragically touching or touchingly tragic. This life story of last century’s greatest songwriter is a little of both. De-Lovely reveals Cole Porter (Kevin Kline) and his infamous bisexuality, a feature that seemed to enhance his close marriage to Linda (Ashley Judd). Their love, it would seem, was Teflon coated and able to withstand the needs she was unable to provide, and infamy his indiscretions would create. This freedom allowed Porter to pursue his creativity and write some of the best songs of his era; songs that spoke to everyone and, to ears that listened carefully, of other matters indeed (“But if baby you’re the bottom, I’m the top” for instance). The erudite script by Jay Cocks (Age Of Innocence) uses time-honoured flashback from within a fantasised stage-show rehearsal of Porter’s life. His career all but over, Porter advises producer Jonathan Pryce on how to set the record straight. It’s an intriguing device which gives Cocks the latitude to explore the writer from many angles and moods. Not all of them are all that pleasant as the film’s bookend sequences suggest; he died an embittered, lonely old man who was paralysed both physically and emotionally. Yet the core of the film is so delightful and, well, de-lovely, that it takes audiences on a tremendously romantic and inspiring journey. One that testifies that not all love is straight forward, that honesty and negotiation is at the heart of any truly caring relationship. Toss in two eye-catching performances and one hell of a soundtrack, and you’ve got a film the whole, non-conventional secular family will enjoy.

// COLIN FRASER