I absolutely adored this film. The humor was intelligent,
not slapstick, and full of fun and lightheartedness. This film dealt with a lot
of tough and difficult issues, such as homosexuality, identity crisis,
tolerance and acceptance, and politics, by using humor
The main message of the film is to never change yourself for
others. When Val asks his father and, consequently his mother Albert, to change
themselves, everything goes wrong. Barbara’s parents only start to accept the
family when they are being honest about themselves, and when they help them get
away from the media. Sen. Keeley dislikes the “fake family” he knows because of
how they are acting. He likes “Mrs. Coleman” because he thinks that “she” is a
darling wonderful woman. He feels this way because she acts false in order to
impress him. Once all the characters become honest with each other, they can
finally accept who they are.
I think that it is ironic that the only people who have a problem
with the future in-laws are the Keeleys. They dislike Val’s family because they
act weird, and because they make assumptions about them. Val’s family knows
that the Keeleys hate gays, and drags, but they never act out in dislike
towards them. Val’s family has every right to dislike the senator and his
family. They express their hatred for gays, well for anyone that is not a
right-wing conservative. There was more hatred expressed towards things that
they could not change- their sexual orientation. But Armand, Val, and Albert
let Sen. Keeley sound like an idiot. However, to Sen. Keeley’s credit, he did
not seem as upset by the fact that “Mrs. Coleman” was a man. He was stunned
that Armand is Jewish. Those, like gays, who are given the least amount of
acceptance from society, are the first people to accept those who are different
than them. Armand and Albert try so hard to accept the senator and his wife in
order to make Val happy. The Senator could care less about the happiness of his
daughter.
This film showed the stupidity of politics at time. Sen. Keeley
did not care at all about the death of his friend, but about the fact that he
was found with a black, underage prostitute. He did not care about the
happiness of his wife or his daughter, but how his election is going. He
condemned Val’s family, but hoped that it wouldn’t influence their decision to
vote for him.
While filming this movie, filmmaker Rick McKay went to Paris,
London, San Francisco, and Atlanta to make a feature length documentary about
drag queens. This documentary was used to train Nathan Lane and Robin Williams.
I am glad this did this in order to fully grasp the culture of the drag queens,
instead of making things up based on the stereotypes that people make of them.
This gives the film an aspect of reality. I would hate to watch something
filled with stereotypes because then I feel like we are mocking a culture that
may be different from ours, but is a culture nonetheless.
Interesting catch on the stupidity of politics of the time! I can definitely see that in this film!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info about the documentary, I didn't know that. Too bad it isn't a special feature.
ReplyDelete