GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

MAY 17, 1996

Evenings Out

It's My Party

Written and directed by Randal Kleiser

Reviewed by Doreen Cudnik

I'd been hearing a lot about It's My Party, the newest in a long line of gayor AIDSthemed films starring straight actors in gay roles (this time Gregory Harrison and Eric Roberts), but was beginning to wonder if the film would ever open in Ohio. Well, the wait is over, as the movie opened the weekend of May 10 at theaters throughout the state.

Aside from the experience of kissing Harrison, Roberts said he found no difference between portraying a gay man and a straight man. "[Nick] is not any different because he's gay," the actor said.

For his part, Harrison said he “conciously avoided gay stereotypes."

"I don't believe you have to be gay to realistically portray a man in love with another man," he said.

Being an openly gay writer and director, you would think that Randal Kleiser could have found at least two gay actors in Los Angeles with Screen Actors Guild cards who would have jumped at the opportunity to play these roles.

Make sure you pack a whole lot of Kleenex prior to seeing this one, because Kleiser pulls out all the stops, manipulating your emotions until you feel as if you're re-living your most excruciating breakup. The story is a familiar—and painful—one for Kleiser, having been inspired by the life and death of his lover Harry Stein, who held a similar farewell gathering prior to his death.

The two main characters, Hollywood director Brandon Theis, (Harrison) and Nick Stark (Roberts), a successful Los Angeles architect, are no strangers to the good life. The film opens with flashbacks of fabulous parties at their home in the Hollywood hills (sign clearly visible in the background), ski trips to Lake Tahoe, and fantastic shots of their vacation in the sunny Greek isles. In one scene, Nick throws a surprise birthday party for his lover, and gives Brandon two thoroughbred horses—a present that would require most of us ordinary folks to second mortgage the ol' homestead to keep it. But, clearly these boys have money, and the film makes that apparent in every shot.

When Nick finds out that what he thought was just a flu bug is in fact AIDS, his relationship with Brandon suffers under the strain. Nick deals with the news by throwing parties for his flamboyant friends when Brandon is away on business, while Brandon takes a lover: a young and presumably HIV-negative assistant who helps him with much more than his film project.

Brandon eventually orders Nick to leave their home, and the parting is anything but amicable. Nick sells the horses; Brandon insists on keeping the dog they both love. As he pulls away in his Saab convertible, Nick tells Brandon, "Never mess with a Greek; we're ruthless, but we're fair."

Nick's health deteriorates rapidly, and a year later, living in a much less palatial home than the one he shared with Brandon, he is diagnosed with PML (progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy), a brain disease that causes dementia and loss of vision in many people with AIDS. After a discussion with his doctor about how much time he has left before he "becomes a rutabaga," Nick decides he will gather his friends and family together, have a big farewell party, and then end his life by taking a drug overdose. “I'm not gonna die blind, demented, and lying in my own shit," he says.

Gregory Harrison and Eric Roberts

We find out through another series of flashbacks that he is not the first one among his circle of friends to have had this idea, as he and Brandon helped a friend after his suicide, agreeing to come to his house and "arrange his body" so his family would not have to deal with any additional grief. Nick demonstrates his rather unorthodox view of death and dying when he poses in bed with his friends' corpse, so it comes as no surprise when, faced with the impending reality of lingering in a vegetative coma, Nick opts to check out in similar fashion. "Die young, and leave a good-looking corpse," he says.

While there are plenty of comic as well as touching moments during the party scenes, the film stalls here, becoming one morbid death joke after another. It's just a matter of when, not if. Nick and his friend Monty (played with bitchy aplomb by Bronson Pinchot) sing their version of the Leslie Gore tune: "It's my party, and I'll die if I want to."

It seemed just a tad unlikely that nobody, including his already grieving mother Amalia

his party die if

He'll die atts

(Lee Grant) and his beloved sister Daphne (Marlee Matlin), would lose it and say, "Enough already. This is not funny!"

At the urging of their mutual friend Charlene (Margaret Cho), Brandon delays a trip to Australia with his boy-toy and shows up to say goodbye to Nick. He initially gets the cold shoulder from members of Nick's family and many of his friends, but he stays around, hoping to make his peace with Nick before he dies. As sundown approaches on he second day, Nick's family asks for time alone with him, and things get very somber as people file out of the house, stopping to pose for a last photograph with Nick as they tearfully bid him a final farewell.

Nick doles out comforting words of wisdom to everyone; he tells his friend Lina (Olivia Newton-John), who is in the midst of a divorce, "Promise me you'll make the decisions that will make you happy." As he walks Charlene to her car, he makes her swear that she will cut her hair, saying, “How's Mr. Right going to find you if he can't even

see you behind these bangs?" He even makes peace with his alcoholic father (George Segal) who showed up at the party unexpectedly, after years of absence. The prolonged march of tearful goodbyes become a little exhausting, especially since Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You plays over and over again in the background, just in case your tear ducts are not completely wrung out yet.

The film does raise some important issues, such as the controversy surrounding euthanasia, the significance of "chosen❞ family in the lives of gays and lesbians, and the continuing devastation of the gay community as a result of the 15 years of AIDS. But Kleiser ties it up all nice and tidy in this neat little package of a film, leaving me wondering if anything as absurd and complicated as dying in the prime of your life and at the pinnacle of your success could ever really be resolved so neatly simply by throwing a great party. If only life-and death--were that easy.