Bar-room connaisseur and still a student at heart (broke, that is) I now work for an engineering fir...
Bar-room connaisseur and still a student at heart (broke, that is) I now work for an engineering firm dealing with some of their foreign clients. I'm not really an expert on anything, but have a pretty sound grasp of a wide number of subjects from prog...
Member since:17.07.2000
Reviews:56
Members who trust:7
Yeah, OK, this is a funny film, but that's not all. There are plenty of films out there which can make me laugh out loud but not many of them have such good characters or such gentle treatment of sensitive subjects.
Armand and Albert are a gay couple who run a drag club in the heart Florida's gay community. When the son they raised brings home the daughter of an ultra-conservative politician as his bride-to-be, they have to decide whether or not to hide their sexuality, and if so, how.
Now it seems clear from the start that there will be plenty of jokes in there at the expense of the gay community, and thre are. Albert shrieks and whoopsies his way through the film, and even the relatively butch Armand gets a few laughs for playing up to the stereotype.
Normally I would take offence at a film which takes the micky out of any persecuted minority, but this film pokes fun out of the gay community so gently and affectionately that it is impossible to be offended. More to the point the film demonstrates beautifully (and there are still plenty of ppl who don't yet undrstand this point) that gay people can be good parents, and that their relationships can be just as deep and valid as straight ones.
The actors all do their jobs extremely well, some underplaying their parts to perfection, others overplaying superbly. The responses of the couple to the awkward situation their son has put them in are utterly believable, and although the meal scene at the end has all the makings of a classic farce, it never really resorts to crude or insensitive humour.
The other thing which sticks with me about this film is the ending. It's nice to se a Hollywood film in which the conflicting parties (ie the gay couple and the consrvative couple) come to terms with one another without needing to indulge in Ricky Lake style outpourings, revelations and confrontations.
Altogthr this is a clever and sensitive film which just happens to be really funny. Highly recommended.
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Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
Thanks for another great review. It seems to be pretty hard to review a film without giving too much away or saying too little, you seem to have done a fair job walking that tricky line.
Robin Williams delivers his funniest performance since Mrs Doubtfire in this non-stop ... more
hilarious comedy audiences and critics adore. Williams stars as Armand, the outlandish owner of a wild Miami Beach nightclub, whose partner Albert, is also the star a...
Dec 5th, 2000
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