Spoiler warning! "Boys on the Side" is an extremely competent movie, with some great highs, some wince-inducing lows, and mostly "good movie-ness" throughout. Mary-Louise Parker's character was perfectly drawn and acted. Anyone who has had experience with a loved one being ravaged by an illness into an inevitable yet slow death could probably relate to her character. Her dilemma and behavior rang as true as any well-done documentary could have striven for. There was also an extra element, that of hope, and fulfilling one's life, and all without melodrama or a false note. That was a deft piece of work for all concerned with the movie, but especially for Parker. Yaay her.
The gender theme was a little tiresome. The three main male characters were 1) a psychotic, violent woman beater and drug dealer; 2) a Dudley Do-Right cardboard cut-out who can do nothing but read off of his police badge; and 3) a bumbling, frustrated bartender, a social nobody, who can't even pull off one night of romance without screwing up two women's lives. Bit players in the male parade of dorks later includes unfeeling villains from the judicial system, not evil per se, but soul-less and without any imagination or heart. Yikes! The only sympathetic male was a six year old brother who threw up on a roadside and then died of cancer, but since it happened 30 years before the movie story, we never get a chance to meet him. Whew!
Part of the fakiness and tedium of the feminine rehabilitation tatooed within this movie comes from the main device used: "Golly! Us women are really just like men!" -- No, you're not. And thank god for that! Otherwise, Whoopi's fine turn as a lesbian was revealing, sympathetic, and fresh. Great job Whoopi. Estelle Parsons, I think, played one of the best movie Moms in a while. She brought out all of the small, invisible things that drive us crazy about our closest relatives, and that sometimes drive us away from them for a lifetime, yet she also brought forth the love and humanity in a mom that made her so remarkable in the first place. Very sympathetic, excellent job. And Drew Barrymore was perfect for the young ditz whose exuberance and innocence and goofiness both get her into the worst trouble, and at the same time saves her from it.
So-- makers of "Boys..." Good job, and stop beating up on us men, and please stop making up fantasy conditions of women as "boys in skirts" or some other version of men in order to strengthen your own lives. Believe me, you are much greater than you seem to have ever imagined, but... as you are.
The gender theme was a little tiresome. The three main male characters were 1) a psychotic, violent woman beater and drug dealer; 2) a Dudley Do-Right cardboard cut-out who can do nothing but read off of his police badge; and 3) a bumbling, frustrated bartender, a social nobody, who can't even pull off one night of romance without screwing up two women's lives. Bit players in the male parade of dorks later includes unfeeling villains from the judicial system, not evil per se, but soul-less and without any imagination or heart. Yikes! The only sympathetic male was a six year old brother who threw up on a roadside and then died of cancer, but since it happened 30 years before the movie story, we never get a chance to meet him. Whew!
Part of the fakiness and tedium of the feminine rehabilitation tatooed within this movie comes from the main device used: "Golly! Us women are really just like men!" -- No, you're not. And thank god for that! Otherwise, Whoopi's fine turn as a lesbian was revealing, sympathetic, and fresh. Great job Whoopi. Estelle Parsons, I think, played one of the best movie Moms in a while. She brought out all of the small, invisible things that drive us crazy about our closest relatives, and that sometimes drive us away from them for a lifetime, yet she also brought forth the love and humanity in a mom that made her so remarkable in the first place. Very sympathetic, excellent job. And Drew Barrymore was perfect for the young ditz whose exuberance and innocence and goofiness both get her into the worst trouble, and at the same time saves her from it.
So-- makers of "Boys..." Good job, and stop beating up on us men, and please stop making up fantasy conditions of women as "boys in skirts" or some other version of men in order to strengthen your own lives. Believe me, you are much greater than you seem to have ever imagined, but... as you are.