GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

SEPTEMBER 12, 1997

Evenings Out

He's well-dressed, he likes to dance and he's a Streisand fan

But he's the last one to figure it out when a former student outs him on TV

In and Out

Directed by Frank Oz

Paramount Pictures

In wide release Sept. 19

Reviewed by Tim Nasson

I'll say it from the very start. In and Out is the funniest movie to hit the big screen since Bette Midler's Ruthless People was released over ten years ago. And there are many reasons why you will feel that it is one of the funniest movies of the past ten years as well, after having exited the theater.

The ensemble includes a potpourri of actors of varying status in the entertainment industry, and all bring to In and Out a unique sort of humor, with the help of openly gay screenwriter Paul Rudnick.

Rudnick won an Obie award for his play Jeffrey, which he later adapted for the screen. He will undoubtedly receive high accolades for this, his most entertaining piece of work yet.

Who else could come up with the concept where "Magnum P.I." Tom Selleck plays a gay man? Or where "Mother" Debbie Reynolds utters the line, "I am a lesbian?"

Rudnick, a master at comedic writing, weaves together the story of a high school English teacher, Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline), in the small town of Greenleaf, Indiana. Brackett is clumsily outed by a former student named Cameron (played by Matt

Howard Brackett tells his mother and his worried fiancée that, honestly, he really isn't gay.

Dillon) during an Academy Awards acceptance speech.

The scene, which was the idea of the film's openly gay producer Scott Rudin, was inspired by Tom Hanks' 1994 Best Actor acceptance speech for his role in Philadelphia. Hanks thanked a gay man who had been his high school drama teacher. The difference is that Hanks' teacher Rawley Farnsworth was openly gay and retired at the time, whereas in Rudnick's version, the teacher not only isn't out, but he is planning to be married in less than a week to Emily (Joan Cusack).

Chaos ensues in the small town of

F

Greenleaf. The sheltered townsfolk don't know what to do.

Reynolds is fabulous as Kline's everunderstanding mother. "I don't care what you are dear. Just as long as I get to have my wedding," she says, after having planned the wedding for nearly three years.

Peter Malloy (Selleck) arrives in the fairy-tale town as a gay tabloid television reporter who needs to get a scoop on the story so he can boost his falling ratings.

(That Selleck plays an openly gay tabloid reporter is ironic since he sued the Globe tabloid in 1991 after they said he was a closeted gay man. The case was

Screenwriter Paul Rudnick, director Frank Oz, and producer Scott Rudin, I to r, have a chat on the set.

ANDY SCHWARTZ

settled out of court.)

ANDY SCHWARTZ

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Malloy does more than get a scoop. He gets some action. It seems that Brackett is the only person that can't figure out that he himself is gay. With the help of Malloy and even Diana Ross, Brackett is dancing to the beat of a different drum faster than he can say "I Will Survive."

Rounding out the ensemble are Bob Newhart, in a perfect role as the homophobic high school principal that fires Brackett when the town turns into a media circus; Wilford Brimley as Brackett's confused, yet compassionate father, and supermodel Shalom Harlow as Matt Dillon's anorexic, dumb girlfriend Sonya.

The zippy one-liners in the film are what keep it moving faster than a speeding bullet. And it seems that Debbie Reynolds steals the majority of them. It helps that she delivers them with such panache. Like matter-offactly telling a little girl, no more than ten years old, "Well, your mother is an alcoholic," after hearing the girl going around saying her son is gay.

Reynolds, who deserved to have won the Academy Award this year for Mother but somehow wasn't even nominated, better get her dues next year for this role.

Another ingenious piece of screenwriting by Rudnick is a gay spoof of Forrest Gump. The audience gets to see a clip of the film that Matt Dillon's character is nominated for. Dillon's competition for Best Actor even includes Steven Seagal, proof positive that the film pokes fun at anyone and everything, from Hollywood to the fashion industry. However, the best scene in the movie is where Kline is listening to a cassette that is supposed to teach him how to be a man. This scene, along with many others, will have you rolling on the floor and desperate to get back to the theater a second or third time to see this comic masterpiece.

Tim Nasson is a syndicated writer who can be reached at TNasson@aol.com