The year is 1979 and in a sleazy West Hollywood gay bar, Rudy a very scary looking drag queen, is lip-syncing to a disco hit ‘Come to Me’ and he catches the eye of a handsome masculine and very straight dude sitting by himself. Paul is a divorced closeted uptight lawyer who works in the D.A.’s office. They couldn’t be more different, but opposites attract and often make for the best relationship, and it turned out to be love at first sight.Rudy lives down the hall from Marianna a drug-addicted hooker and her son Marco, and after she is arrested one night, Rudy takes care of the kid. Soon Social Services come knocking, but by then Rudy has taken a shine to the 14 year old Downs Syndrome kid and he decides to try and keep him in his care.
Rudy appeals to Paul for legal advice and help, and as well as giving him that, he asks Rudy and Marco to move in with him. They visit Marianna in jail to get her to legally sign over Marco on a temporary basis, but once everyone susses out that the two men are not ‘cousins’ as they claim but a gay couple, they lose Marco, and Paul also loses his job.
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The more homophobia the couple encounter the more outraged and determined they get to ensure that the fight is about what is best for Marco i.e. the loving environment they have established and in which he has flourished in. Rudy is loud-mouthed, impatient, and passionate and he eggs Paul on to unleash his seething sense of injustice so that even with their different temperaments, they are totally on the same page.
It is based on a true story, and reminds you (yet once again) when Courts thought that anyone/thing at all would be better than having a child growing up with gay parents. Several decades later here in Florida, nothing has changed and the Law will still not allow us to adopt : the State would prefer that children be totally miserable and dejected in Institutions rather than ever be exposed to gay people.
Riveting performances by Alan Cummings and Garret Dillahunt as Rudy and Paul, and a shout out to young Isaac Leyva who is so excellent as Marco.
The movie also had some of the worst wigs I have seen in a very long time which was very distracting ….. and did we really wear clothes that bad back then? Despite that, it’s a delightful small film with a very big heart. Take a box of Kleenex as they don’t all live happily ever after in this tear jerker.
