I sat down to watch this movie believing it to be a fairly run-of-the-mill, but enjoyable comedy about a straight man being outed, and his attempts to prove this wrong. In fact, this is how it was marketed (in the UK at least), and none of the trailers mentioned the real storyline.
SPOILER WARNING
The pathetic plot twist is that the outed teacher, Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline), tries to make himself appear masculine, fails, and decides that he must be gay after all. This really should have been mentioned in the sypnosis for the film, and not been left as a 'suprise' for moviegoers. The second half of the film descends into what is basically a propaganda piece - "hey gang, it's okay to be gay!", and feels as if it has been written by a completely different person. The film gets way too preachy, often at the expense of the humour. I'm not against gay people or anything, but the movie never let any other opinions through. The 'acceptance' finale, which tried to be heartwarming, was corny and embarassing. Secondly, it uses almost every gay stereotype in the book (I like Barbara Streisand - I must be gay), which may end up offending gay people, instead of helping to put across their point of view.
In conclusion, the film was boring (I should never have to look at a clock expectantly during a 90-minute movie), offensive to straight people and gay people alike, and continually offers a very one-dimensional opinion, which looks slightly out-of-place in a film of this type. Anyway, there was an episode of The Simpsons which handled this issue with much more humour, as well as satirizing the prejudice encountered. Wait for reruns of that instead.
SPOILER WARNING
The pathetic plot twist is that the outed teacher, Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline), tries to make himself appear masculine, fails, and decides that he must be gay after all. This really should have been mentioned in the sypnosis for the film, and not been left as a 'suprise' for moviegoers. The second half of the film descends into what is basically a propaganda piece - "hey gang, it's okay to be gay!", and feels as if it has been written by a completely different person. The film gets way too preachy, often at the expense of the humour. I'm not against gay people or anything, but the movie never let any other opinions through. The 'acceptance' finale, which tried to be heartwarming, was corny and embarassing. Secondly, it uses almost every gay stereotype in the book (I like Barbara Streisand - I must be gay), which may end up offending gay people, instead of helping to put across their point of view.
In conclusion, the film was boring (I should never have to look at a clock expectantly during a 90-minute movie), offensive to straight people and gay people alike, and continually offers a very one-dimensional opinion, which looks slightly out-of-place in a film of this type. Anyway, there was an episode of The Simpsons which handled this issue with much more humour, as well as satirizing the prejudice encountered. Wait for reruns of that instead.