Flawless Reviewed

ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE

Flawless

To begin with, let’s get something, um, straight. There are female impersonators in this movie, and if you cannot imagine a good film with drag queens, then you might as well read no further. That attitude is an ongoing concern of mine about movies. You cheat yourself out of a lot of good films if you don’t give the director and actors the benefit of the doubt about subject matter. For me, a film about an Elvis impersonator would be a true drag, but Finding Graceland, starring Harvey Keitel as a you-know-what is one of the most satisfying and moving movies I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

But, enough about me. Let’s talk about two of the most memorable characters on screen this year. Walt Koontz (Robert De Niro) is a security guard with a record of heroism and a settled routine in an unsettled neighborhood in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He plays handball, makes a weekly visit to a pay-per-dance hall, and lives in a dreary apartment hotel with an assortment of drug dealers, prostitutes--and drag queens, for whom he reserves special hostility. After a stroke, resulting in partial paralysis, his speech is slurred, his gait unsteady, and his emotional state one of total despair. He rejects his co-workers who try to stay in touch with him.

As part of his rehabilitation, singing lessons are recommended to help his speech. The biggest, baddest, flaming-est drag queen of them all, Busty Rusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman) happens to have a piano, as well as a sewing machine, but not much money. And so it is that the oddest couple ever to grace film (odder even than the Rex Harrison/Richard Burton twosome in the 1969 Staircase) work out their differences, or, then, again, they don’t. Rusty and Walt are two tough cookies who have little in common except the rough deals they’ve gotten in life. Each is, in his own way, a real man. Each is, in his own way, something other. Hoffman’s work has Academy Award ® nomination written all over it, deservedly, although I can’t believe the pompous Academy will grant an award for such a role, no matter how well it is played. Hoffman is not just impersonating a female impersonator. He shows us the fierce, gentle, sad, happy, strong, weak sides of an incredibly complex character, not "just" a female impersonator.

De Niro, as we would expect, has done his homework, and he plays out every technical detail of a stroke survivor. But, he brings a certain glow to the best moments, not only with Hoffman but also with his tango partners Karen (Wanda De Jesus) and Tia (Daphne Rubin-Vega) from the dance hall.

Strangely enough, as long as Hoffman and De Niro are at the piano, the film swings along. The problem is, the plot is all over the keyboard, with some confrontations between drag queens and Gay Republicans that seem to be cheap exploitation, beneath the dignity of the two main performances. There is also a rather tiresome subplot involving stolen drug money that holds the film together but finally tears it apart with an awkward bit of the old ultra-violence forced into the plot.

Joel Schumacher, director, who takes writing credits on this, was pretty well blown out of the megaplex by most critics earlier this year for Eight Millimeter, a film which moved me the first and second times I saw it. Considering what he did with Nicholas Cage in that film and with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Flawless (the title refers to a drag beauty contest, but throws down the gauntlet to pun-loving critics), he is an actor’s director. And an audience’s, also.

If you can’t imagine a good film with drag queens—and you have stuck with this review this far—by all means, check this film out. It may not change your opinions of drag queens, but it certainly could broaden your appreciation of films.

"So," a friend challenged me, "are you going to review the new Bond film?" No, I’m not. Let’s face it, even if everything is up to date in The World Is Not Enough, who can take this stuff seriously after all these decades, and after the Austin Powers send-ups? The politics, the sexism, the downright boring Bondness of it all is more than enough. But, try telling that to those fans for whom Bondage is dominant. Keep your helicopter buzzsaw. Miss Rusty is playing an encore with backup vocals by Walt.

Keep your feet dry (and stepping lightly, if you attempt to dance tango) and your heart full of noble thoughts. If you can’t in good conscience bring yourself to celebrate the incredible diversity of human experience, at least be glad that the movies allow us to see and to learn about what we might choose not to experience.