Rarely do I find gay-themed movies in second-hand dvd stores. I think we people of the pink treasure our gay flicks even if they are flawed and we don't really feel the need to see them again. Ever. So I should have been forewarned when I found Friends & Family for the price of less than a cup of coffee. It is a deeply weird movie in that some parts that work pretty well are joined with a few parts that don't work in any way, shape or form. As the good parts aren't good enough to make up for the seriously bad ones, the whole production ends up going under.Stephen and Danny are heavies for an Italian mob boss and are a gay couple. Their parents know about the latter and are dandy with it, but are oblivious about the former. Therefore, when all four of the parents come into town, many shenanigans ensue to cover up the shady profession. Though, because the couple is supposed to be our main interest and therefore sympathetic, we aren't really shown them doing anything all that shady. But everybody is deeply afraid of them because they have a reputation and as heavies for a mob boss I doubt it would be based on how they press wild flowers. They must have done some really bad and violent things in service for the mob - and these are the good guys...
What we also don't get to see is any physical activity going on between them. Because that would be - you know - gross, to the general audience that this movie seems to be aiming for. At the grand finale, the couple realises they took this job as tough, bad-ass mobsters to overcompensate for being gay. But it's not just the couple suffering from internalised homophobia; this whole movie has one foot in the closet. To kick up the gay-level in a sexless way, two flamers are presented as the best friends of our leads. How this group met and bonded is a scenario I can't quite fathom, but at least they are more interesting than the GQ duo. The 'leads' also have their thunder stolen by most of the slightly caricatured cast and their subplots. In the end, it feels like the headliners were the supporting cast in their own movie.
On the plus side, the production values are good, some jokes land and the actors - for the most part - manage to win you over. But then there is that one subplot that torpedoes the movie, sinks it, dives down for the remaining pieces and stomps on them.
One of the two pairs of parents are anti-government survivalists and plan to overthrow the people in charge now that they are visiting the big city by... well I didn't quite grasp the grander scheme, assuming there was one, but it ends in a hostage situation. The survivalist scenes leading up to this break tone completely with the rest of the movie and are entirely, cringe-inducingly unfunny. The actors and their characters are way over the top and the footage seems shot by amateurs without a script. They serve to force the movie to come to a climax, but a better solution could easily have been found to bring that about, using the other characters. The movie makes you feel like a good cook and a bad cook came together and only managed to come up with a half-way edible soufflé. It looks pretty, but falls flat.
