Swan Song

I was rather charmed by it. No, it doesn't change the world, no it doesn't do anything that's groundbreaking other than give Udo Kier the chance to show just how broad and sympathetic his range can be.

Inspired by a real-life Sandusky, Ohio legend, writer-director Todd Stephens crafts an impeccable odyssey that ponders love, loss, and attitudinal changes. “I wouldn’t even know how to be gay any more,” Pat tells Eunice, almost despairingly.

Stephens’s film is an amiable little story, and Kier is clearly enjoying himself immensely, but this is as wafting and insubstantial as Patrick’s chiffon scarf.

Kier’s immaculately polished performance tightens the reigns as his expression expertly flits between haunted melancholy and stoic bravado to capture Pat’s regret and potential forgiveness.

It is a treat all round, but impossible to picture without Kier in the lead: star power raging against the dying of the light to a defiant disco beat.

If it’s possible for a prolific septuagenarian to be a revelation, Udo Kier is exactly that.

Just a beautiful film.

Swan Song’s story may be simple, but Udo Kier’s colorful and charismatic character work makes this eccentric escapade worth a watch, along with its touching, life-affirming themes.



Swan Song is, like many such airs, a little too slow and indulgent for its own good, sometimes meandering and losing its way, but Kier’s magnetic performance, which won him Best Actor Awards in Dublin and Monte Carlo, holds it all together.

…you don’t have to be gay to like it, you just have to be in touch with your fabulous side….