In and Out. - movie reviews

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 10, 1997 by Joseph Cunneen

If a movie about unemployed would-be male strippers can be enjoyably raucous, why isn't 'in and Out" (Paramount), a farce about the "outing" of Indiana high school teacher Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline) just as he's about to get married, more successfully funny? Probably the answer is that the movie is basically condescending to Indiana and its wider audience, hoping to communicate a vague sense of tolerance regarding gays but desperately afraid of upsetting mainstream viewers.

It has many good bits, however, the best being the set piece in which Howard tries to follow the instructions on a self-help tape on acting macho, straining not to give in -- because "real men don't dance" -- as infectious boogie-woogie music becomes more and more insistent. Earlier, with most of Greenleaf, Ind., watching the Academy Awards on TV, there is a hilarious camp movie sequence in which Howard's former student, Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon), plays a dumb gay soldier. When he wins the best actor award, Cameron thanks Howard, while also "outing" him -- a replay of Tom Hanks' action after winning (for "Philadelphia") a few years back.

Naturally, the announcement startles Emily Montgomery (Joan Cusack), who after three years of chaste courtship during which she dieted strenuously is about to marry Howard in a few days.

Kline is first-rate. Cusack does equally well with more limited opportunities. The movie also has such veteran pros as Debbie Reynolds as Howard's mother and Bob Newhart as the embarrassed high school principal. Scriptwriter Paul Rudnick, however, doesn't seem to realize that one can be tasteless even in farce and relies too much on our finding Barbara Streisand's name an immediate cause of laughter.

Peter Malloy (Tom Selleck) is wonderfully sly as a TV reporter covering the story. Gay himself, Peter tells Howard to stop the charade. The problem is that when Peter kisses the confused Howard on the mouth, the scene doesn't play as funny. Neither does another in which Howard enters a confessional, pretending to be talking about someone else, and asking what to think about a friend who's been dating a young woman for three years without having sex.

The priest's instant reaction is, "He's gay!" It's not that piety needs find the reply inherently offensive. But you'd need Groucho Marx as the priest to make the situation work, and Groucho wouldn't stand for the fake tolerance of the movie's pat ending.