The
success of La cage aux folles (1978) preoccupies some of
those who make gay-oriented films. A second recurring theme
involves parents visiting their grown-up children who have
yet not disclosed that they are gay. Friends and
Family,
directed by Kristen Coury, falls into both traps, with
some twists, but at least has enough clever lines to redeem
the many superfluous clichés that serve to keep
the film out of the mainstream. Two masculine lovers, Stephen
Torcelli (played by Greg Lauren) and Danny Russo (played
by Christopher Gartin), are enforcers and bodyguards for
a mafia boss, Victor Patrizzi (played by Tony Lo Bianco).
Patrizzi's sons (played by Danny Mastrogiorgio and Lou
Carbonneau) are interested in careers in such "effeminate" lines
of work as caterer and designer, though their mother Stella
(played by Anna Maria Alberghetti) insists that they will
be ready to run the family business when the time comes.
Even worse, Patrizzi's daughter Jenny (played by Rebecca
Creskoff) announces that she is engaged to marry Matt Jennings
(played by Patrick Collins), who is neither Catholic nor
Italian. Nevertheless, early in the film, the lovers establish
their credentials as tough guys by using strong-armed methods
to force a feminine opera singer to pay his gambling debt.
The plot thickens when Matt's parents (played by Tovah
Feldshuh and Brian Lane Green) are planning to go from
a small town in Wisconsin to see their son's future bride.
Then, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, Stephen's
mother (played by Beth Fowler) decides to give her husband
(played by Frank Pelligrino) a birthday present--a trip
from a small town in Indiana to New York, where she believes
that her son and his lover run a catering business. Although
the Torcellis know that their son is gay and coupled, Stephen
fears disaster, as his mother expects a catered banquet,
and his father is an undercover FBI agent who will surely
arrest him along with the rest of the Patrizzi mob. Jenny
then solves Stephen's dilemma. One of her brothers will
teach Stephen and Danny how to prepare a gourmet meal,
and the other brother will decorate. Waiters will be some
of Patrizzi's goons. (Meanwhile, the two lovers contemplate
that they have chosen their brass-knuckles profession to
overcompensate for the fact that they are gay.) For entertainment,
English-accented Richard Grayson (played by Edward Hibbert),
a friend of Jenny and the gay couple, will educate the
goons on gay film star trivia and show them how to perform
a musical number, complete with swishy choreography. During
the meal, the mafia boss caters to the whims of Stephen's
mother by dictating orders via a microphone up his sleeve,
but he is relieved that Stephen's father has now retired
from the FBI, and even more delighted to learn that Matt
was actually born in Sicily and was adopted by his Wisconsin
parents. However, Matt's parents have changed since he
moved to New York; they bring along members of the local
militia to take hostages and make demands in their inept
pursuit of a new American revolution, thus enabling the
camp production to end with a bang or two. With some editing
of the comedic excesses, Friends and Family might have
crossed over to the mainstream but instead will be best
enjoyed by gays in a packed cinema or adapted as a stage
play. MH
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