Adam & Steve (2005)

Instant Favorite.

As Good As It Gets

A lot of fun.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

When will unknown writer-directors learn that they should NOT play the leads in their own films? This was Craig Chester's "brass ring", meaning SOMEHOW he got a studio, backing and named actors to take part in this production, and he had the option to show the world what a great director he was by casting an age-appropriate actor for the lead or by showing he is a narcissist by believing a a 40-year-old man he could play a teen-age goth kid. Guess what direction he went in. Predictable/campy "jokes", miscast roles, unbelievable performances and a "dance-off" ending that somehow takes the place of a plot resolution are what characterize this mess. 3 stars purely for the production values. Gee, wasn't 2005 the same year Brokeback mountain came out? Wait to set gay cinema back...

So you're gay and you're thinking of seeing this movie, and, knowing that it's a gay movie, your expectations are already lowered. Maybe rightly, judging from most of what's out there.Interestingly, this gay movie has both the best and the worst of the genre. What's bad? Oh, some of the acting, some direction, some dialog, some of everything, really. What's good? Some of the acting, some direction, some dialog--again, some of everything. Which is to say, when it gets it right, it gets it Really Right. Laugh out loud right. When it gets it wrong, well, you can't fix it so you gotta stand it.So yes, if you're debating, see it. Especially if you're gay and especially if you like to laugh. Just seeing Craig Chester in his goth get up made me laugh. That's something that anybody could laugh at, but some of the humor is gay-specific and might sail over the heads of straight people. Mostly, though, it skewers contemporary life in a way that both gay and straight will understand and appreciate.What makes this worthwhile is the dialog, some of which is razor sharp and very, very funny. Any big budget Hollywood comedy could be improved one thousand percent by stealing just a few of these wickedly funny lines that are tossed off so casually. Parker Posey has the lion's share of them and her delivery is fast and furious; she hits the bulls-eye every time. The players are all competent and likable. Chris Kattan is good as an envious, maybe even jealous, straight roommate. Julie Hagerty plays Chester's mom; she's another one that just makes me smile when I see her slightly ditsy persona on screen. Bottom line: if you're looking for art, keep looking. Want a few yuks? Adam and Steve will deliver.

ADAM AND STEVE is a movie you want to succeed: the idea of an honest gay relationship developing between two guys with a weird history and subsequent difficulties forming meaningful intimacy, the presence of four fine actors, and a film that seems to take itself not too seriously. The problem is that writer/director/star Craig Chester just seems to have put too much into his bag for one film and in doing so he diluted the strength it could have had.Adam (Craig Chester) first met Steve (Malcolm Gets) in a dance bar in 1987 where Adam (accompanied by his grossly obese friend Rhonda - Parker Posey in a fat suit) is dazzled by Steve's good looks and on a bet from Rhonda ends up on the date from hell: after snorting coke cut with baby laxative the two men become amorous with some rather embarrassing consequences. 17 years later Adam is a bird watcher guide while his friend Rhonda, now without a single pound of fat, is a sadly unsuccessful stand up comic. Adam inadvertently injures his beloved dog and in trying to get help at a human hospital encounters psychiatrist Steve and the two begin a courtship.Neither man is able to cope with the idea of monogamous intimacy yet they develop a solid relationship, despite visits with dysfunctional families (Adam's Jewish family are ridiculously accident prone while Steve's Texas redneck parents are coldly homophobic). Steve has a straight roommate Michael (Chris Kattan) who plays into Steve's life the way Rhonda plays into Adam's life. Eventually memory recovers the past, it is dealt with and the ending is very predictable - as well as bit sappy.Each of the main characters does a fine job with their respective roles. It is the sidebar diversions that mess up the storyline rather than enhancing it. Yes, much of the nonsense can be forgiven because the film's heart is in the right place, but why this talented group could not have inserted a little restraint here and there is a frustrating question with which we are left. It is an entertaining film that errs on over the top asides to the point of distraction.

Craig Chester and Malcolm Gets (particularly this latter hunk, who's just so winsomely huggable---he seems so right at home, so comfortable with himself) have some real warm moments, and that doesn't often happen in gay-themed films these days. Unfortunately the pluses of this are more than a few times imbalanced by some of the following minuses: -An overage of what other review sites have called "gross-out" humor. I easily could have stood the early on diarrhea sight-gag, had its use not been later overloaded by the sometimes diarrhetic mouth of a stand-up club's master of ceremonies (Michael Panes, was it?) and of Parker Posey's character, herself, upon occasion. Why are such remarks, like the female-bestiality cracks in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" considered such fair game in humor these days? Puke!!-Perhaps a little over-reliance on Jewish "sensibility-moments."-Guess, overall, I just feel that Chester has been around long enough to: know better, turn out something better, just plain old be better. It can't have been inexpensive to roll out this product, so it just seems he could'a gotten a lot more for his buck (and we for ours).WHOA.....WHOA......WHOA.........STOPPpppp! You know what? I went back and "re-looked" this movie last night, and in the midst of my millionth laugh, it suddenly hit me that I hadn't really laughed any less the first night. Say, maybe I've been trying to make something too serious out of this little production, and that's not what it's about at all. It really doesn't have to be another "Brokeback Mountain" (as great as that was). Isn't it nice, instead, to have something that keeps our spirits up? Well, you bet.And we can have all the "sensibility-moments" they can throw at us......cause isn't there a good, old Hebrew word that just perfectly describes Adam? Isn't it something like.......Klutz (and a lovable one at that)? And being "sad-sacky," that can be funny too, can't it? Right on!Finally, on an even more positive note (for someone like me who's always placing gay kissing scenes*** under the old microscope), I'd have to judge that this production has not been afraid to give us a goodly number of 'osculating-lips-in-action' shots. Don't you agree? They weren't all perfectly aimed, but there were some really good ones.PS--So, congratulations, Adam & Steve, on your wedding and for being able to live in a world far removed from that of Jack & Ennis.***And for scenes in which "lip-locks" were done as well or better, try these: "Just A Question Of Love" / "Latter Days" / "All Over The Guy" / "Brokeback Mountain" / "Maurice" / sorry, gotta stop somewhere)