Adam Sandler (left) and Kevin James in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. ________
Anyone else have the desire to see Ving Rhames nude ( or just about ) ; Adam Sandler playing a chick magnet on par with Hugh Hefner; or both Sandler and his co-star Kevin James hold hands and pucker up? How about seeing an arsenal of gay stereotypes so over the top that even Mel Brooks would cringe?
All that and not much more are on display in I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, yet another movie in which gays are used as the long-winded joke for straights. This latest comedy to use the device of gays entering a once-sacrosanct bastion of male machismo ( firefighters, in this case ) allows the filmmakers and actors the joint option of stereotyping both cultures. Thus, the straight men are manly to a ridiculous degree while the queers are mostly so nelly they seem to have sprouted wings. Everything from rainbow flags to a rousing sequence scored to Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman is referenced right on cue. Naturally, there is also a scene in which a straight male pretending to be gay must be forced to inspect, touch, fondle or somehow manhandle the breasts or body of the female hottie ( in this case, Jessica Biel ) who is 'safe' to show off her wares because she's hangin' with her favorite 'gal pal.'
The thin story hinges on the put-upon James, who portrays a widower with two kids ( one who is a couple of years from coming out, as the film makes blatantly clear ) who blackmails his best friend, the macho Sandler, into signing up as his domestic partner so he can leave his pension to his kids should he get killed in the line of duty.
After this suspect set-up, the movie—which is essentially a series of sketches loosely strung together—allows James and Sandler plenty of room to riff on their patented comedic personalities ( snide Sandler and sweet James ) as they sail through the phony set pieces. Ironically, the moments that have nothing to do with the gay jokes and sight gags and rely instead on Sandler and James' crack timing provide the film with its freshest laughs.
Also, the movie is stuffed with cameos by a host of former Saturday Night Live players. None add much in the way of humor.
Again, the movie's biggest sin is that the gay references are unbelievably stale. But late in the picture, Rhames does get the biggest laughs during the oldest of all the gay clichés—the shower sequence in which the soap is dropped accidentally by the straight guys in front of the queens. Question: Where did Rhames get all those scars?
I didn't feel insulted by Chuck & Larry, as one would suspect an über queer film critic like myself to be. The picture was intermittently funny and had a nice subtheme in which the machos are enlightened enough to take to heart 'the word is 'gay,' not 'faggot'' message of tolerance espoused by Sandler at the climax. But, the overabundance of outmoded clichés instantly dated the picture. When it comes out on DVD it will match up nicely with the last big-budget, fuddy duddy buddy gay comedy made by straights—The Birdcage from 1996—11 years and a lifetime ago. The gay community has moved far, far away from the stereotypes these pictures portray and it might be nice if someone would let these straight filmmakers in on yesterday's news.
When filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian monks of the Grand Chartreuse, a Catholic monastery in the French Alps, seeking permission to photograph their world, it took the monks 16 years to acquiesce. The wait was worth it. Gröning spent six months capturing their secluded world on film. To do so, he lived in the order and observed their strict rules, living in almost hermit-like solitude and speaking only under prescribed conditions. The result, titled Into Great Silence, is a three-hour hypnotic treatise on the rewards of contemplation and a way of life that lives up to the description offered by the order: a life of 'joyful penitence.'
This simplistic way of life, as Gröning's film observes, is filled with its own quiet, hard-earned rewards and the bliss of constant interaction and observation of nature. This is a deeply reflective movie that gives one the chance to experience a way of life so far removed from that of the modern day world as to be almost revelatory. The movie has been a standing-room-only hit in Manhattan and makes its Chicago debut this week at the Siskel Film Center. www.siskelfilmcenter.com
See www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . People can leave feedback at the latter Web site, where there is also find ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
