Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2000. Show all posts
Dr. Travis (Richard Gere with a white-haired dye job) is a Dallas gynecologist with an exclusive clientele. His wife Kate (Farrah Fawcett) has a public meltdown -- she takes off all of her clothing and steps into a fountain -- and winds up institutionalized, after which he embarks on an affair with new golf club employee, Bree (Helen Hunt of Empire Falls). Meanwhile his family and patients are bothering him with an assortment of problems: nurse Carolyn (Shelley Long) is secretly in love with Dr. T, and his daughter, Dee Dee (Kate Hudson of The Skeleton Key), has invited her former female lover (Liv Tyler) to her wedding (to a man) as maid of honor; Dee Dee's sister thinks the marriage is a mistake, for obvious reasons. [Bree has a supposedly open-minded but pretty stupid reaction to this whole rather contrived business.] Other cast members include Lee Grant as a shrink; Andy Richter, who makes no impression, as a buddy; Janine Turner as a neurotic patient; and Laura Dern. In its treatment of the lesbian couple the movie strikes some liberated, if awkward, sparks, but somehow it still seems old-fashioned and unsatisfying, although it's more watchable than a lot of Altman's[Popeye] movies. One interesting sequence graphically shows the miracle of child birth.
Verdict: Typically rambling and unfocused Altman with some good scenes and okay acting. **1/2.
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| Ellen Muth as Jane |
Jane (Ellen Muth) is a sixteen-year-old high school student who realizes for sure that she is gay when she is intimate with, and falls for, another student named Taylor (Alicia Lagano). Although Jane's parents are liberal and have gay friends, they don't react well when their daughter comes out of the closet. The Truth About Jane is well-intentioned and well-acted -- Stockard Channing [Twilight] and James Naughton are excellent as the parents, and Muth and Lagano are also terrific -- but it has an oddly dated quality, although it does expose the evils of homophobia and bullying. There is an unfortunate underscoring of "pity those poor gays" that doesn't quite mesh with modern day Gay Liberation attitudes, and it's interesting that the Parents of Gays in the group PFLAG introduce themselves the way alcoholics do at AA, creating an probably unintended corollary between homosexuality and alcoholism! Kelly Rowan plays a sympathetic teacher who also turns out to be a lesbian, and a comparatively subdued, out of drag RuPaul [Charles] has a nice turn as Jane's mother's gay friend, Jimmy.
Verdict: Nice enough as far as it goes... **1/2.