by Jonathan Demme, 1994.
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Tom Hanks, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, Denzel Washington, Joanne Woodward.
Rating: 4/10, 5/10.
Blech blech blech. I guess I technically have to give this movie mad props for being the first mainstream film to deal frankly, honestly, and seriously with both homosexuality and AIDS, but ugh. It’s just not good.
I mean, I suppose as far as formula hollywood courtroom dramas go, it’s well-made. The acting is pretty good, it follows all the steps. But boy, is it ever a formula hollywood courtroom drama. So overdone, so predictable, so earnest.
And so much of it was just entirely unbelievable to me. For one thing, not only is Tom Hanks’s entire family completely OK with his homosexuality, not a one of them even gives his boyfriend, Antonio Banderas, an uncomfortable glance. They are 100% cool with that, all of them, right down to their bones. Hell, they’re more comfortable with it than I am, and I AM gay. For another thing, the law firm that Hanks is suing is presented as almost 100% pure evil, start to finish. I mean, we get a few glimpses of not complete evilness, as when their attorney mutters, under her breath, "I hate this job," but aside from that, it’s all stark black and whites. And that really bugs me.
But the thing that bugged me most was that at the end, as Hanks’s family and friends file into his hospital room to say their goodbyes (warning: a spoiler just happened...oops, too late—not that that was really a spoiler, anyway), I was getting seriously choked up. I hate this. When a movie is manifestly made just to toy with my emotions, pure manipulation, and it produces a genuine reaction out of me, I hate it. I don’t want to waste my emotions on something as unworthy of them as Tom Hanks pretending to die while the soundtrack soars heartbreakingly. I feel like the movie has been so manipulative as to make me betray myself, and that is simply unacceptable to me. It’s daring, yes. It’s groundbreaking, yes. But even that is more manipulation, trying to force me to like what is essentially artless and otherwise worthless.