Shaun de Waal Low-budget movie of the week
In Rose Troche’s debut feature, Go Fish, a lesbian is put on “trial” by her peers for daring to contemplate the idea of sex with a man. This scene seemed to confirm some viewers’ worst fears about lesbians, but Troche’s intention was indubitably satirical. Her satire, though, comes from within such a milieu, and is affectionate. As her new film, Bedrooms and Hallways, shows, Troche can’t accept that sexual identity is necessarily immutable – whichever team you bat for.
Leo (Kevin McKidd) is a gay man whose life lacks excitement. Certainly, his London house-mates, Angie (Julie Graham), an air hostess, and Darren, aqueen played to perfection by Tom Hollander, think so. It is his straight friend, Adam (Christopher Fulford), however, who makes the suggestion that sets this comic plot going.
Why not, Alex proposes to Leo, join my men’s group? This group is of the kind that became popular after Robert Bly, in his book Iron John, argued that men needed to explore fully their masculinity and get in touch with their emotions (other than the sport-related ones that, as far as I can tell, cause so many men such torment already). If it takes initiation rites and “wild man” weekends in the woods, all the better.
Leo, of course, being gay, is the odd man out in this gathering, and he soon sets the cat among the pigeons by confessing to lust for another group-member. The member in question is the undeniably dishy Brendan, played by James Purefoy – misnamed in an Internet article James Purejoy, which makes sense, though his impact on Leo’s life is not purely joyful.
Brendan’s estranged girlfriend, Sally (Jennifer Ehle), later enters the mix to further complicate what is beginning to look a bit like a Feydeau farce. On the subplot front, meanwhile, Darren is having a passionate affair with an estate agent (Hugo Weaving), who has a taste for sex in other people’s houses – this provides the “hallways” of the title, I suppose, though I still think they could have come up with a better one.
The movie makes a hilarious meal of everything from the romantic permutations to the New Age pretensions of the men’s group. There are a couple of plot points that seem to turn on all too little, but otherwise the script by Robert Farrar is excellent, and the high-spirited cast is uniformly good. Simon Callow, in particular, is brilliant as the men’s group’s shrink (which is ironic, since Callow, whom you will remember from Four Weddings and a Funeral, is almost as famous a homosexual as Sir Ian McKellen).
Bedrooms and Hallways is also attractively art-directed; in fact, it’s worth it for Darren’s outfits alone.
Also opening this week
Biwi No 1. This Bollywood blockbuster has broken box-office records inside and outside India, and could well clean up in South Africa, too. It’s the story of how Puja (Karisma Kapoor) fights for her man, Prem (Salman Khan) – and that’s the very short summary. Expect a singing, dancing, melodramatic extravaganza, in Hindi, a mere two-and-a-half hours long. – Shaun de Waal
Comedian Harmonists. Director Joseph Vilsmaier recreates the story of the first German boy-band with aplomb. Once internationally renowned but now almost forgotten, the Comedian Harmonists were formed by Harry Frommermann (an excellent Ulrich Noethen) in the 1920s as Europe’s a capella answer to the popular American group, The Revellers. This charming, well- acted film provides an interesting, if very light, look at the impact of the Nazis on Germany’s cultural life. It’s highly entertaining, but might contain one too many musical numbers for some. – Lauren Shantall
Jeanne and the Perfect Guy. Jeanne (Virginie Ledoyen) is an attractive young woman, not short of boyfriends, whose favourite pastime, we are told, is making love. When she falls in love with an HIV-positive man, her life starts to get complicated. According to directors Oliver Ducastel and Jacques Martineau, it seemed natural to make of this a musical comedy. Ah, the French! – SdW
Prince Valiant. The live-action version of Hal Foster’s illustrated Camelot epic isn’t very faithful to the original – or to any vague sense of history, for that matter. A Viking chief with an Oriental harem? Preposterous. Still, this fantasy is fun for anyone who enjoys a bit of sorcery and sword- fighting. Stephen Moyer is a rather dull hero, but Joanna Lumley and Thomas Kretschmann make impressive villains. – SdW