It stars Kevin Kline as a high school English teacher in rural Indiana who is days away from marrying Joan Cusack and is outed on national television when a former students wins an Oscar, thanks him, and mentions that he’s gay.
At this point the movie’s “1997” starts to show as the whole town is horrified. I’d like to think that today a certain number of students and townies would be a little more enlightened. Not all certainly. Indiana is still a red state. But some.
Of course by the end of the film everyone accepts him, but it’s a Hollywood studio film so of course the ending is happy and touching and lessons are learned.
But along the way, much of the film’s message still holds true. And the comedy still holds up. Way better than I thought it would. Paul Rudnick is wickedly funny and whether there are set pieces like Kevin Kline listening to a cassette that is supposed to help you determine whether you’re gay, Joan Cusack’s hilarious and heartbreaking speech after being dumped on her wedding day, and a plethora of very funny lines. The running joke about Kline’s appreciation for Barbra Streisand provides laugh-of-loud moments throughout.
The casting is pitch-perfect. Kline, as always, is wonderful. Joan Cusack crushes it. And supporting characters like Bob Newhart, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, Shalom Harlow (what a great name that is) and even Tom Selleck get every laugh they’re given.
Oh, for the days when major studios put out smart comedies and they were successful. They would lead the box-office. Today, no studio would make this film. You’d be lucky if Netflix did. Comedies are all “TV movies” now. Studios have all but abandoned them. They’re not going to win awards. They’re not going to attract eleven-year-old boys.
Thank goodness for TCM and the fact that funny is funny.
from By Ken Levine
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