Right off the bat, I'd like to say that I'm one of the admirers of this film. I'm gay, I live in Texas, and these characters are my husband's hick family! But I can understand why the film's so oft hated. While the performances are all fantastic, the characters could be seen as stereotypical and/or annoying to those who've never dealt with or cannot stand people like these. But stereotypical as they seem, these characters truly DO exist. The film comes to an abrupt conclusion without a real resolution. But there's no real conclusion in life, and obviously Del Shores ripped these characters straight from the fabric of his life. As someone else said, if you don't get it in the first ten minutes, find another film -- this isn't for you. My best friend, who's straight but generally shares my taste, gave up on the film early because he said the characters epitomized everything he hates about my husband's family (which he's also married into).
As most everyone agrees, Beth Grant gave a phenomenal performance. As the neurotic sister of the recently-deceased matriarch of the family, Grant bounces from every emotion in the spectrum as she deals with death and nicotine withdrawal. Leslie Jordan chews on the scenery as Brother Boy, the transvestite who's been institutionalized for 22 years because of his cross-dressing fetish. Rosemary Alexander is deliciously wicked as Dr. Eve, the psychologist who's trying to convert Brother Boy to a life of heterosexuality. Delta Burke gives her campiest performance since "Filthy Rich" went off the air 20 years ago as a trailer-trash variation of Suzanne Sugarbaker. The one thing I have to say about Burke is that it took real balls for her to do her first few scenes without makeup whilst stuffing her face with food (and Valium). But she gets redemption when she arrives at the bar later looking fantastic (and it was great to see her reunited with Grant). Beau Bridges gives another standout performance as Burke's cheating husband, who inadvertently was responsible for the death of his much older lover. Bonnie Bedelia is fantastic as the status-concerned daughter who spends more time worrying about what people will think about the unusual circumstances surrounding her mother's death than she spends mourning. Kirk Geiger, the sanest of the bunch, is also a standout as Bedelia's estranged gay son, who sort of ties the film together. And then there's Olivia Newton-John, with a fabulous Southern accent, who proves that over 20 years after "Grease," she still looks great and really can act. It's a shame that her part was so small, but being the other sane one in the film, she also tied the story up by performing the campy theme song.
The coolest thing about this film is that all of the minor characters are just as interesting and well-defined as the leads. There's the animated bar-tramp, the redneck who sent his "little homo best friend packin' to the loony bin," the trashy daughter who tells it like it is, the estranged girlfriend of Geiger's character who always knew he was gay... Stereotypical or not, they all give great performances and they're all very real. Although it took 3 years for the film to find its way to DVD, and the disc is horrendously overpriced, it's well worth it for anyone who enjoys theatrical plays, outrageously well-defined characters or plain camp-factor.
As most everyone agrees, Beth Grant gave a phenomenal performance. As the neurotic sister of the recently-deceased matriarch of the family, Grant bounces from every emotion in the spectrum as she deals with death and nicotine withdrawal. Leslie Jordan chews on the scenery as Brother Boy, the transvestite who's been institutionalized for 22 years because of his cross-dressing fetish. Rosemary Alexander is deliciously wicked as Dr. Eve, the psychologist who's trying to convert Brother Boy to a life of heterosexuality. Delta Burke gives her campiest performance since "Filthy Rich" went off the air 20 years ago as a trailer-trash variation of Suzanne Sugarbaker. The one thing I have to say about Burke is that it took real balls for her to do her first few scenes without makeup whilst stuffing her face with food (and Valium). But she gets redemption when she arrives at the bar later looking fantastic (and it was great to see her reunited with Grant). Beau Bridges gives another standout performance as Burke's cheating husband, who inadvertently was responsible for the death of his much older lover. Bonnie Bedelia is fantastic as the status-concerned daughter who spends more time worrying about what people will think about the unusual circumstances surrounding her mother's death than she spends mourning. Kirk Geiger, the sanest of the bunch, is also a standout as Bedelia's estranged gay son, who sort of ties the film together. And then there's Olivia Newton-John, with a fabulous Southern accent, who proves that over 20 years after "Grease," she still looks great and really can act. It's a shame that her part was so small, but being the other sane one in the film, she also tied the story up by performing the campy theme song.
The coolest thing about this film is that all of the minor characters are just as interesting and well-defined as the leads. There's the animated bar-tramp, the redneck who sent his "little homo best friend packin' to the loony bin," the trashy daughter who tells it like it is, the estranged girlfriend of Geiger's character who always knew he was gay... Stereotypical or not, they all give great performances and they're all very real. Although it took 3 years for the film to find its way to DVD, and the disc is horrendously overpriced, it's well worth it for anyone who enjoys theatrical plays, outrageously well-defined characters or plain camp-factor.