Now that Tobi has reached his late 60’s he has exchanged his once hectic glamorous life as a ballet dancer and celebrated choreographer for that of dance Professor who after teaching class prefers a solitary life at home with just a pair of knitting needles for company. He is however quite flattered when a young woman writes to ask if she may interview him about his days in the limelight for her PhD dissertation, and so he eagerly accepts.
Nevertheless flamboyant Tobi is loving the fact he has an audience to play too again, and so they decide to adjourn to his nearby apartment to continue the interview over a few drinks. Once there Mike suddenly starts jumping in with questions of his own, mostly of which are of a very highly personal nature, and it gradually becomes clear that he has his own different agenda. As that begins to be revealed, we discover that Lisa is not writing a PhD at all and she had used it as a pretext so that the two of them could confront Tobi about a specific part of his past that had compounded on their own lives.
This wee three-hander drama is adapted from a play by its author Stephen Belber, who also directs too, and he never quite manages to shake off its stagey feel. Shot over 15 days with essentially just two locations (asides from the occasion taxi ride) it’s outcome is just a tad too predictable once the hidden agendas are revealed. The movie’s main strength is the glorious central performance of Patrick Stewart who as we know from the classic gay movie ‘Jeffrey’ can play ‘camp’ so very magnificently. The downside is that his two co-stars Carla Gugino and Matthew Lilliard are sadly no match for him and their less than convincing portrayals of the young married couple leaves the whole thing far too flat at times.
