I saw this movie at a film festival when it first came out and, after skipping over it at the local library for the last nine months, finally borrowed it on loan to see what my younger roommate would think of it and to view it again myself, nearly a decade later. It certainly features game performance by the three male leads, but the real triangle here is that of the gay male hunk, the plus size, clueless fag hag and nebbish gay guy.
Unfortunately, what a number of viewers apparently found funny in Mara Hobel's character of Christina, I simply found mostly tiresome and repetitive. From her scene walking in to the divey apartment "Fabulous" to her scene walking in to roommate Marc's bedroom after he first has sex to her nervous breakdown or crying during the "grand gesture" to the whole cluelessness of her New York existence - it just was about four feet too much over the top and ruined what little good there was in her character or her performance. What was her degree in? Basket Weaving? She took that special class for the championship NYU football team in Ballroom Dancing? In 1997, she graduated from college without knowing how to find a semi colon on a key board?
But so as to not seem like I am aiming all my daggers at Ms. Hobel, the idea that the "bad" good would turn out to be (a) a liar; (b) a user; or (c) a hustler were not only predictable but telegraphed not just a mile away, but a drive through the state of Texas away. Likewise, that the nerdy nebbish (Woody Allen without the fixation on the adopted children of his mate) gay guy -- who, unfortunately for him, was ten years ahead of the gay geek hotness era we find ourselves in -- and in any event, hot gay geeks are not Broadway musical fans much less piano players, would be in love (in classic Hollywood romantic comedies from the 40s and 50s fashion) with the gay hunk best pal and, ultimately, the hunk would (for no reason at all, without any real basis, after turning him down because the neb was clearly not the hunk's type, and after lusting in love with a guy who's only real thing in common with the neb is that they both have a musical background? You might as well say that the hunk fell in love with them because they both breath air.
This film does have some charms and again, with a different writer and director, some different casting choices, a tighter script (it went on too long, meaning some entire characters could have been cut out), might have made more of itself. You could cut the entire Cynthia story down to 5 minutes and not make her a roommate and make Marc's apartment a studio and have a much tighter and probably more interesting movie in the process. Perhaps then you could spend a little more time in the relationship between Robert and Marc to justify why they end up together at the end, other than rom com conventions of the Hollywood 40s and 50s and bad Broadway musicals of every era, say they must.
Unfortunately, what a number of viewers apparently found funny in Mara Hobel's character of Christina, I simply found mostly tiresome and repetitive. From her scene walking in to the divey apartment "Fabulous" to her scene walking in to roommate Marc's bedroom after he first has sex to her nervous breakdown or crying during the "grand gesture" to the whole cluelessness of her New York existence - it just was about four feet too much over the top and ruined what little good there was in her character or her performance. What was her degree in? Basket Weaving? She took that special class for the championship NYU football team in Ballroom Dancing? In 1997, she graduated from college without knowing how to find a semi colon on a key board?
But so as to not seem like I am aiming all my daggers at Ms. Hobel, the idea that the "bad" good would turn out to be (a) a liar; (b) a user; or (c) a hustler were not only predictable but telegraphed not just a mile away, but a drive through the state of Texas away. Likewise, that the nerdy nebbish (Woody Allen without the fixation on the adopted children of his mate) gay guy -- who, unfortunately for him, was ten years ahead of the gay geek hotness era we find ourselves in -- and in any event, hot gay geeks are not Broadway musical fans much less piano players, would be in love (in classic Hollywood romantic comedies from the 40s and 50s fashion) with the gay hunk best pal and, ultimately, the hunk would (for no reason at all, without any real basis, after turning him down because the neb was clearly not the hunk's type, and after lusting in love with a guy who's only real thing in common with the neb is that they both have a musical background? You might as well say that the hunk fell in love with them because they both breath air.
This film does have some charms and again, with a different writer and director, some different casting choices, a tighter script (it went on too long, meaning some entire characters could have been cut out), might have made more of itself. You could cut the entire Cynthia story down to 5 minutes and not make her a roommate and make Marc's apartment a studio and have a much tighter and probably more interesting movie in the process. Perhaps then you could spend a little more time in the relationship between Robert and Marc to justify why they end up together at the end, other than rom com conventions of the Hollywood 40s and 50s and bad Broadway musicals of every era, say they must.