The Birdcage

Search Reviews · Now Playing · All Reviews

Starring	Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest
Director	Mike Nichols
Year	1996
What it's worth		Matinee (Good way to spend a couple of hours.)

In this time when everything from cartoons to old classics are being remade as movies, it seems a wonder that La Cage Aux Folles, a longtime Broadway hit, has taken this long to make it to the screen. The story in The Birdcage (the English translation of the original's French title) is simple; a young man has gotten engaged, and he and his intended want to make sure their parents get along. The problem is that her parents are ultra-conservative (he's a senator), and his parents are a gay couple living above the drag nightclub they run. So when the Senator and his wife come to visit, the gay couple need to find a way to convince them that they're people they would like to spend a day golfing with at an exclusive club.

Robin Williams plays Armand Goldman, the ostensible head of the boy's family, the biological father, and the nightclub's producer and owner. He actually stands a half-decent chance of "playing it straight." The other half of the couple, though, is not nearly so easy. Albert (Nathan Lane), is a drag queen who desperately hopes for womanhood, is the headline star of the show downstairs, and has completely forgotten how to act masculine, if he ever did know. Trying to get this household, including their housekeeper, Agador (Hank Azaria, who threatens to steal the entire movie with his hysterical accent and prat falls), to look proper and respectable, is going to be quite a task.

The Birdcage is at its best when it covers its basic topic; how two obviously gay men can pretend to be otherwise. There are times when the movie tries to add scenes, to stray beyond the original play's storyline, and those scenes are very obvious; they just don't do as well as the basics. When the story sticks to its premise, though, it is outrageously funny.

The Senator (Gene Hackman) and his wife (Dianne Wiest) arrive at last, and the expected contortions begin as everyone tries to cover up each others' mistakes. In this screenplay, the idea that someone may be idiotic enough to not figure out what's going on gets played up to the max, for even more laughs, as the Senator stares dumbfoundedly at what's going on and comes to all the wrong conclusions.

I'm sure the studio is a bit nervous about this movie; it has incredibly high potential to offend. Conservatives may be offended at the Senator who believes that the pope is too controversial and Billy Graham is too liberal. Homosexuals may be offended by the ultra-stereotypical drag queen and effeminate gays. But both of these extremes are played as caricatures, not as true representations. The trick to enjoying the movie, no matter which end of the liberal-conservative spectrum you lean toward, is to turn down the offense dial and, even if some portions make you quirm, enjoy the lampooning of the other end.

The plot holes in this movie are many. Lane's character, while screamingly funny most of the time, also got on my nerves as he burst into hysterics for the fifteenth time. Some conclusions take too long to make. But in general, The Birdcage is good for some great laughs, and definitely worth spending a few bucks on for the chuckles it gives.

Search Reviews · Now Playing · All Reviews

More information about this movie is available at the Internet Movie Database.

In the Dark is created by Beth Ann Griese. In the Dark and the reviews on it are copyrighted; you may link to any portion of this site, but the contents cannot be copied without permission.