BIRDCAGE, THE

(March 1996, U.S.)

THE BIRDCAGE is director Mike Nichols' American version of the French comedy, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (1978). It is also one of the very rare examples of the American version surpassing (in my opinion) the original foreign subtitled version of a film. Believe me, that doesn't happen too often.

Robin Williams and Nathan Lane play off each other's comic chemistry in the best tag-team (or should I say, "DRAG-team"!) example I've seen since Abbott and Costello. Nathan Lane's outlandish, effeminate mannerisms as a screaming drag queen absolutely shines with comic genius. The insanity begins when their son, Val, is going to be married to a girl whose ultra-conservative father (played by Gene Hackman) is seeking reelection as the co-founder of the "Coalition for Moral Order", which by the way, the founding member has just died in the bed of an underage black prostitute. Everyone involved on Val's side of the family is then put in the dire position of having to play it straight during a highly tense dinner to appease their would-be conservative in-laws. The results are absolutely...well, insane! Really, it's like something out of your favorite episode of I LOVE LUCY or THREE'S COMPANY!

Talking about Mike Nichols for a moment, he is probably one of the most diverse directors of our generation. His is a career that has included the funny (THE GRADUATE, THE BIRDCAGE), the dramatic (SILKWOOD, CLOSER) and even the monsterously terrifying (WOLF). Someone like Michael Bay could take a lesson or two and stop blowing up shit so much.

This film met with mixed reviews ranging from praise to condemnation in both the mainstream press and the gay press for the portrayals of its gay characters. Okay, not to sound too politically incorrect (or something like that), but there are certain comic themes in film that have always proven successful in the past. Like it or not, one of them is men in drag acting like women. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (he just died) pulled it off in SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959). Dustin Hoffman pulled it off in TOOTSIE (1982). It seems that more often than not, if you're going to make somebody laugh, somebody else is going to likely be offended along the way. Get over it, will you!

Favorite line or dialogue:

Armand: "Al, you old son of a bitch! How ya doin'? How do you feel about that call today? I mean the Dolphins! Fourth-and-three play on their 30 yard line with only 34 seconds to go!"
Albert (effeminate voice): "How do you think I feel? Betrayed, bewildered... wrong response?"
Armand: "I'm not sure."