BEFORE: Well, Authors Week ended on a bit of a down note - I considered watching "Pirate Radio", another Philip Seymour Hoffman film, to lighten things up...but the films for the rest of the year are already lined up, and if I add one in, I've got to drop one somewhere. My list of films is like a road map, and right now I don't have time for a detour, or I won't arrive at the "right" place on Dec. 31.
Instead, I'll stick to the plan and watch this film with Hoffman and Robert De Niro - this got added to my collection too late to make last year's De Niro marathon. (which ended with "Stardust", where De Niro played a gay pirate. Insert your own joke...)
THE PLOT: An ultraconservative security guard suffers a debilitating stroke and is assigned to a rehabilitative program that includes singing lessons--with the drag queen next door.
AFTER: I saw Hoffman gay it up as Truman Capote last night, though this film was made a few years before that. You can't really say that Capote was closeted, but he did at least dress conservatively and led something of a private life. Here Hoffman's drag queen character is out, loud and proud (especially loud).
This film is filled with racial and homosexual stereotypes - all gay men are flaming drag queens, all non-gays are homophobes, all whites are leery of minorities, etc. etc. Jeez, I'm a white straight male and I think I was offended. Of particular offense is the notion that gay men are really women trapped in men's bodies, and all secretly want to have the gender-changing surgery. I'm sure it's true for some gay men, but aren't some of them proud to just be gay men, and continue that way?
Actually, it's only one character in the film who wants the surgery, but it's the main gay character - and therefore by extension all gay men, all transvestites, want to become transexuals. I know there's a huge difference, and when you say, "Tranny", I think you've got to make the distinction, which this film fails to do.
Actually, there is a glimpse of some gay Republicans here, as they try to convince the drag queens to "tone it down" for the annual Pride Parade. So, the implication, again by extension, is that a gay male is either a flaming, over-the-top, in-your-face drag queen, or a closeted, ultra-conservative, self-hating fascist. Because, as we all know, there is no middle ground on these things. You have to take into consideration that this movie was made at a very different time, when people apparently weren't very enlightened about these issues - 1999, to be exact.
A tougher acting challenge is shown here by De Niro, who has to act without the benefit of moving most of his face, as his character is recovering from a stroke. The two main characters live in one of those only-in-Hollywood (I hope...) New York buildings, where the residents include a cross-section of elderly busybodies, song poets, drug dealers and crime bosses. Did the NYC Tourism Board approve this one? There's a very confusing sub-plot about some stolen money.
Naturally, the two men (OK, one man and one woman-trapped-in-a-man's body) form an uneasy partnership, as the drag queen helps the stroke victim with singing lessons, and maybe, just maybe, form a kind of friendship. Gee, do you think maybe they'll each learn a bit about life from the experience? Spare me...
The movie name-checks the film "My Left Foot", which is also on my list - but again, I'm trying not to take too many detours...
Also starring Barry Miller (last seen in "Fame"), Rory Cochrane (last seen in "Public Enemies"), Daphne Rubin-Vega, Skipp Sudduth (last seen in "Clockers") and Mark Margolis (last seen in "The Wrestler")
RATING: 5 out of 10 beehive wigs
DENIR-O-METER: 3 out of 10. Without his full vocal range and motor skills, De Niro is hobbled here, in more ways than one.
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