THE BIRDCAGE
A film review by Ed Powell
Copyright 1996 Ed Powell
Starring: Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, and Gene Hackman. Directed by Mike Nichols, a United Artists release.
This is a terrific movie for the 1990s. "The Birdcage" is a tale about a young man (whose parents are a gay couple (played by Robin Williams and Nathan Lane) and he has never met his biological mother), who meets a young woman (whose father is an ultra-conservative Republican senator (played by Gene Hackman) and mother looks and sounds like she came straight out of the world of "Leave it to Beaver") and they decide to get married.
The problem is that the woman's parents want to meet the man's parents. In order to keep the woman's parents from flat-out going insane at the concept of the inlaws being a gay couple (as a stereotypical conservative Republican is want to do), they try (with very limited success) to make everything seem like a normal, "moral ideal American" family.
Robin Williams proves once again that he is a great dramatic actor as well as a foot-stompingly funny comedian, Nathan Lane played his role as a man acting as a woman so well, it scared me, and Gene Hackman is, as always, good in anything.
Although I have never seen "La Cage Aux Follies", on which this film was based, I imagine that an extensive rewrite was required to make this film a fable for the 1990s. We could all learn a little something about tolerance and accepting lifestyles that are unlike our own from this film. Bravo to the writers, bravo to director Mike Nichols, and bravo to the actors and actresses who made this film an entertaining work of art.
Score: 57 out of 60 (9.5 out of 10)
--- Ed Powell joeylemur@aol.com http://user.aol.com/joeylemur/
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