BEFORE: Got a late start today because I had to speed through the finale of "American Idol" and then watch the last three episodes of "The Amazing Race" before getting to my film. In both cases I feel the need to watch the results before they get spoiled by someone posting on Twitter - but in the case of the "Idol" finale, I fast-forwarded through all the nonsense and the songs I didn't know, so watching the 2-hour finale took only about 15 minutes. I'm sort of glad the show's been cancelled after next season, because I feel I've sort of aged out of its target audience, so not having it around to watch will be a great time-saver. In the case of "Amazing Race", my interest level is still strong, despite someone's attempt this season to turn it into some kind of dating show. Interesting experiment, now please, never do that again. The show may have its faults, but not being like "The Bachelor" wasn't one of them.
This is the second of two films dropped in at the last minute to the Robin Williams chain, mostly as a matter of convenience to make my films line up right with Memorial Day, and this happened to be running on cable and seemed like a more entertaining film than "RV" could possibly be. Plus, it seems like it could play off of themes of identity, like "The Face of Love" did, with people not being who they appear to be - but I'm just guessing, based on the posted one-sentence synopsis.
THE PLOT: A radio show host begins speaking to his biggest fan, a young boy, via the telephone. But when questions about the boy's identity come up, the host's life is thrown into chaos.
AFTER: Robin Williams plays a late-night radio host here, who specializes in bringing tales from his own experience to his late-night listeners. Things got somewhat confusing for me early on when his friend, a publisher, brought him a manuscript written by a young boy which weaves a tale of years of being sexually abused by his own parents. This occurs for the thinnest of reasons - the boy is supposedly a big fan of the radio guy - otherwise I couldn't really understand why this took place. How is the radio host going to help this kid get the book published? He works in a totally different medium. The manuscript itself was somewhat confusing - is the publisher going to print it, or not, and what result did he expect to gain by showing it to a radio guy. Did he just want him to promote it on the radio or something?
I later learned that this story is based on a true incident that happened to Armistead Maupin, the author of "Tales of the City", and knowing this helps shed a little more light on things. Maupin's not only an author, but a respected teller of tales from the LGBT community, and if this kid suffered abuse at the hands of pedophiles, perhaps he'd have some insight to give the publisher on the kid's story. But this wasn't really made clear in the film itself, I had to bring some outside knowledge to the story.
Williams, playing the Maupin stand-in, Gabriel Noone, plays a gay character here with a great deal more respect than he did playing one in "The Birdcage". In other words, he's much less queeny here, and I think that shows a sort of cultural progress made, a better understanding of how gay men act. Perhaps he was trying to redeem his past performance in some way, much like John Ritter did when he starred in "Sling Blade", after playing Jack Tripper on "Three's Company", a character who pretended to be gay in a very similar diva-like fashion.
The movie, however, falls in to a very easy trap - when showing the young boy talking to Noone on the phone, we see footage of the boy in Wisconsin while speaking to Noone on the phone. Why? Because that's the way that most TV shows and movies would film that. But then for the film to tell us later something that contradicts what we've already seen, well, that's asking a lot from the audience right there.
I understand, footage of someone's voice coming through the phone is much less interesting, but it would have been a better vehicle for supporting possible doubt later on. Think about it - if you meet someone via phone or e-mail, until you speak to them face-to-face, there's a slight chance that they look different than they claim, or that they're not who they say they are.. The natural reaction of an audience member here would be to feel as if we've already met the character, when in fact Noone had not.
I can't say any more without getting into spoilers, there's obviously more to the story once this doubt is introduced. (I can't even tie it in with last night's film without giving too much away...) But I'm left with a feeling of not "What is this story about?" but more like "Why is this story being told?" Even if it's a true story, I'm not sure about what insight, if any, it imparts about life or the human condition, or anything for that matter. I just don't know why someone would raise so many points and then do nearly nothing with them.
Also starring Toni Collette (last seen in "Enough Said"), Rory Culkin (last seen in "Signs"), Bobby Cannavale (last seen in "Blue Jasmine"), Joe Morton (last seen in "Apt Pupil"), John Cullum (last seen in "The Notorious Bettie Page"), Sandra Oh, with a cameo from Becky Ann Baker.
RATING: 3 out of 10 flight attendants
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