Review: In & Out
A movie review by David Sunga
Directed by: Frank Oz Written by: Paul Rudnick
Starring: Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, Bob Newhart, Shalom Harlow and Tom Selleck
Ingredients: a popular teacher who wears a bow tie; a long onscreen kiss; pop psychology jargon ("After I based my entire concept of self esteem on your willingness to marry me?"); physical comedy about macho clichés; verbal barbs about dieting and Barbara Streisand movies.
This movie is a lighthearted comedy about acceptance. The dilemma is set up in the first few minutes when former student Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon), now a celebrity actor, receives a Best Actor award for playing a gay soldier who gets discharged when it is discovered that he has Bette Middler movies in his possession. As Drake accepts the Best Actor award, he mentions that he owes his inspiration to Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline), the high school English teacher of his hometown of Greenleaf. Cameron tosses in a comment about Brackett's being gay. The folksy residents of Greenleaf are wonderful but homophobic, so the tight community nearly faints at the unbelievable revelation, especially since it is only a few days before Brackett's wedding to long-suffering fiancee Emily (Joan Cusack) and the town's upcoming Best Teacher Contest and high school graduation. After showcasing humorous reactions from reporter Peter Malloy (Tom Selleck), the townspeople, students, and Brackett himself, the movie takes us through the town's two big events and into the ending.
Opinion: In a light farce meant to satirize tabloid journalism, high school principals, old TV shows, and stereotypes, it's surprising to find a complicated character, but Kevin Kline successfully pulls off a lot of implied character depth without unbalancing the movie's lighthearted tone. Joan Cusack is sufficiently befuddled and exasperated as the fiancee. Since the movie, like an interview, consists mostly of peoples' overreactions to a single revelation, enjoyment of this comedy rests on how funny the townspeople's remarks are, and scads of one-liners are thrown, shotgun style, to probe for laughs in different directions. For example: bachelor party guys end up arguing over Barbara Streisand's movie, ‘Yentl,'; movie star Cameron (Matt Dillon) tells his whiny supermodel girlfriend, "You look like a Swizzle stick," and; a gossipy old woman confesses faking Rice Krispy treats in explaining that everyone has something to hide.
Reviewed by David Sunga
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