The Birdcage is quite simply one of the funniest movies ever made.  And while its setting and premise are exotic, the underlying theme of 'why can't my parents be like everyone else?' is well-nigh universal.

The Birdcage of the title is a drag club in South Beach, Florida.   The club is owned by Armand Goldman (Robin Williams), a middle-aged gay man in a long term relationship with Albert (Nathan Lane), who is also his club's headliner as "Starina". 

Albert isn't just a drag queen - he's also a drama queen, and Lane is perfect in the role.  You really believe his tantrums and heartbreaks, over the top though they may be.

Our plot gets going when Armand's son Val (Dan Futterman) comes home from college with news.  He wants to get married.   Armand and Albert, who both raised Val, are resistant to the idea since Val is only twenty. 

The scene shifts to the home of Val's fiancee Barbara (Calista Flockhart), where she is breaking the news of her engagement to her parents.  Barbara's father Senator Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman) and mom Louise (Dianne Wiest) have a lot of the same questions and concerns that Armand and Albert have.  Who are these people? 

And Barbara is lying to them.  Armand, she tells them, is a Cultural Attache to Greece and Mom is a housewife.  It's important to realize that Val has not lied to Barbara, she knows very well that he was raised by two gays in Florida - it's Barbara who's lying to her parents.  And it says a lot about her parents that Barbara is not only hiding that Val's dad is gay, she's even hiding that he's Jewish!  Goldman becomes Coleman. 

Senator Keeley is a far-right moralizer, one of the founders of the Coalition for Moral Order.  So when the co-founder dies in the bed of an underage black prostitute, the Keeley family home is besieged by the news media.   Barbara's parents figure the way to show their own commitment to morality is to be deeply involved in their daughter's upcoming marriage.   The Keeleys head south to meet Val and his family, with a tabloid reporter in pursuit.

Val panics when he learns Barbara's folks are on the way and explains the situation to Armand - that Keeley is a highly conservative politician, and could you guys just tone it down a little? 

Both Armand and Albert are hurt by the request, but they love Val and try to comply.  The scenes were Armand is trying to teach Albert how to act straight are downright hilarious.  They've both lived most of their lives in the gay enclave of South Beach, and Albert has always felt free to be as swishy as he wants to be.   Watching the poor fellow try to act straight, you know this is never going to work. 

So does Armand.  So he turns to a woman he hasn't seen in twenty years, Val's mother Katherine (Christine Baranski).  Now a rich and successful businesswoman, twenty years ago Katherine was a penniless young actress.  She successfully seduced her gay costar, but couldn't handle the resulting pregnancy and allowed Armand to take the baby.   But now she's willing to help out and play the part of Armand's wife for the Keeleys.

Complications ensue, keeping Katherine from the dinner, so when the Keeleys arrive, the Mrs. Goldman/Coleman who greets them is Albert in drag - and he's so much more believable as a woman than as a straight man!  What follows is one of the funniest dinner parties ever filmed. 

Everything about The Birdcage is funny.  Val trying to tone down the family apartment with the assistance of club dancers, insisting "Don't add, just subtract", as the clubbers try to create their concept of a straight abode by bringing in a moose head and Playboys for the bathroom. 

And even with a cast that includes Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, Hank Azaria manages to steal just about every scene he's in as Agador the Guatamalan houseboy.

Hilarious from start to finish, but also touching and warm-hearted, with lots of dancing. 

"We! Are! Family!" 

This one's a keeper.



Back to Joyce's Pix of the Flix