GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

APRIL 18, 1997

Evenings Out

Short AIDS homecoming film is like an exquisite, tiny jewel

In the Gloaming

Directed by Christopher Reeve HBO Productions

Reviewed by Kaizaad Kotwal

Ancient East Indian art had a tradition of miniature paintings done on ivory with a single hair for a brush. These tiny works are vibrantly colorful and rich in detail. And while these paintings are of particular places and people, the themes in them are timeless. Other ancient cultures have left behind miniatures where entire volumes of religious texts are etched onto grains of rice. All the above prove, beyond the meticulous focus of their artisans, that great things often come in small packages.

HBO Productions has given its audiences one such miniature, in the incarnation of a short film In the Gloaming, which is the directorial debut of Christopher Reeve. The film is a meditation on what happens to a family who barely know each other, when the son comes home to die of advanced stages of AIDS.

In the Gloaming boasts an all-star cast, each of whom shine as brilliantly as the sun right before dusk, that time of day which the Scottish refer to as the gloaming. The story is contained in form and structure, allowing the characters to develop strong performances in this story of a WASP family trying to learn the art of communicating and loving openly. Robert Sean Leonard plays Danny, the prodigal son come home to rest, and Glenn Close plays Janet, the self-effacing mother who believes that the only incredible and extraordinary thing she has ever done is give birth to her son.

Leonard, who has shown consistently strong acting abilities, turns in an extraordinarily modulated performance that is mesmerizing. In Dead Poets Society he also played a son in opposition with his strong father's stranglehold, showing that Leonard is not afraid to tackle unconventional roles.

Glenn Close as the doting mother, learning a lifetime's lessons in the few remaining months of her son's life, is explosive in her controlled rendition of pain and joy all commingled in one. The film's most poignant scenes are between Close and Leonard as they share in the gloaming, coming to terms with lost time and conditional love.

Close (who eerily resembles Julie Andrews here) dazzled viewers in another gay-friendly made-for-TV film, Serving in Silence: The Margerethe Cammermeyer Story. She is no less exceptional here and fills this tiny film with her glowing and marvelous presence. Like the endless detail in one square inch of the ivory miniatures from India, Close's face tells an entire story with the slightest twist of a lip or the minutest wrinkle of the brow. Their relationship bristles with humor, touching compassion and a longing for a real connection. Close and Leonard build tiny moments into gems as they share memories from the past in an attempt to make the most of the limited present and finite future. When Danny tells his mother of his last love Paul, Close finds her connection with her son when she asks, “Did you love? Were you loved in return?" When Danny answers in the affir-

Great things come in small packages

Glenn Close is the doting mother, learning a lifetime's lessons in the few remaining months of her son's life.

mative, a simple “Good” from Close speaks volumes about what every mother wants for her children.

Whoopi Goldberg plays the supporting role of a nurse with unusual quietness, and without her trademark flashiness. David Strathairn plays Martin as a father who realizes too late that it is his wife who must teach him all the things about their son after he has died. Bridget Fonda plays the rival sibling Anne, who keeps her son away from Danny and who blames her mother for making Danny gay.

Danny, in a way that only dying people seem to be able to see truth, tells his mother that "everybody rationalizes... it's what happens when people don't tell each other the truth." Danny has made his peace with his family who "has always been accepting" yet "never participated."

The greatest achievement of the film is Reeve's unobtrusive directing. To see Danny wheel himself around in a wheelchair, it is impossible not to think of the wheelchair-

confined Reeve. Yet Reeve's imagination and skill is in no way restricted. He has paced the film like a Zen poem, contained in form, yet vast in its emotion, philosophy and contemplation on life, death and beyond. It is a film minimal in dialogue yet limitless in connotation and luxuriant in subtext.

The film is a visual kaleidoscope of nature that is part Thoreau's On Walden Pond and part Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The film, in celebrating the beauty of nature, is a wonderful juxtaposition for the certainty that all living things must die.

Like the gloaming, all lives eventually fade, no matter how brilliant, no matter how beautiful. Magnificently directed, shot and edited, the film is as magical as the gloaming, "the only hour you can see the face of God."

Reeve's last public appearance was at the 1995 Oscars where he introduced a nomination. If In the Gloaming is any indication, with the right cast, the right film, Reeve will be back at the Oscars

KEN REGAN

being nominated as a best director himself.

The film's only awkward and distracting bits are two black-and-white segments where Danny appears to his mother in the construct of a classical musical movie. These bits seems gratuitous and slick in an otherwise honest and earthy film.

While HBO has done all it can to avoid mention of AIDS in association with the film, and the KS lesions on Leonard's face were airbrushed out of publicity shots, this film and its makers should revel in its brilliance and universalities. In the Gloaming is like that tiniest diamond which despite its size, is more dazzling, more pure, and more valuable than the largest rhinestone tchotchke on the market.

In the Gloaming debuts on HBO Sunday, April 20 at 9:00 pm. It will also be shown April 24 at 1:45 and 11:55 pm; April 26 at 4:30 pm; April 29 at 12:45 and 10:00 pm; May 5 at 10:30 am and 8 pm; and May 11 at 11:45 am.