Plot
A midwestern teacher questions his sexuality after a former student makes a comment about him at the Academy Awards.

Release Year: 1997

Rating: 6.2/10 (21,650 voted)

Critic's Score: 70/100

Director: Frank Oz

Stars: Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck

Storyline
A high school English teacher is outed as a gay man by a former student while accepting an Academy Award. Comedy ensues in the teacher's private life and small town where he teaches. Story rumored to be loosely based upon Tom Hanks acceptance speech when receiving his Academy Award for "Philadelphia".

Cast:
Kevin Kline - Howard Brackett
Joan Cusack - Emily Montgomery
Tom Selleck - Peter Malloy
Matt Dillon - Cameron Drake
Debbie Reynolds - Berniece Brackett
Wilford Brimley - Frank Brackett
Bob Newhart - Tom Halliwell
Gregory Jbara - Walter Brackett
Shalom Harlow - Sonya
Shawn Hatosy - Jack
Zak Orth - Mike
Lauren Ambrose - Vicky
Alexandra Holden - Meredith
Lewis J. Stadlen - Ed Kenrow
Deborah Rush - Ava Blazer

Taglines: An out-and-out comedy.

Release Date: 19 September 1997

Filming Locations: Clinton, New Jersey, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $15,019,821 (USA) (21 September 1997) (1992 Screens)

Gross: $63,826,569 (USA) (25 January 1998)

Runtime: 90 min

Trivia:
The suit Matt Dillon wears to the Academy Awards is based on the suit Brad Pitt wore at The 68th Annual Academy Awards.

Goofs:
Continuity: The Oscars are awarded in the late March or early April, yet corn is shown growing unseasonably high and students are shown graduating. The weeds by the side of the road when they "meet at the intersection" are foxtails and they are dry and brown which puts this at an actual time of Sept. or so.

Quotes:
Sonja: I don't have time. I promised to do that photo shot this afternoon. I have to shower and vomit!

Yes, it is funny, but still a bait-and-switch

Rating:

Without a doubt, much humor and good performances. The scene with the "Exploring Your Masculinity" tape (this is the one where Kline is told that real men don't dance) had me laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes.

Unfortunately, everything that I had seen and read about this movie before I went to see it indicated that it was a case of a man who was wrongly "outed"... period. When it became evident that he was going to end up being gay (notice his foot-lifting during the kiss with Selleck), I felt very let down.

I didn't want to go see an "it's okay to be gay" movie (there seem to be enough of that type already). I wanted to see the teacher who seems to fit the "gay profile", if you will, gets falsely outed, but nevertheless is "straight".

Making Peter Malloy (Selleck) gay shows that gay doesn't have to fit any preconceived profile (remember, this is the guy who played Magnum, P.I.). But by making Howard Brackett (Kline) gay, it supports the idea that sensitive, poetry-loving (etc.) men must be gay. The viewer would have been better served had the movie stuck with the premise that gay/straight doesn't have to fit a stereotype; let "manly" Sellect be gay and "sensitive" Kline be straight.

Don't interpret this as a gay-bashing/homophobe review; it is not. I sympathize with Kline's character inasmuch as I am a man in his early 30's who is still unmarried, and occasionally catches the "how come he isn't married" sort of thing from people.

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