The Birdcage

Armand and Albert have a home life many would envy. They share a long-term committed relationship encompassing their lives and careers, and have together raised Armand's son, Val, into a caring, responsible, and mature young man. So, when Val arrives home and announces his engagement to the daughter of an ultra-conservative U.S. Senator, what choice is there but to accept his decision with love? Meanwhile, Senator Keeley and his wife are facing bigger problems than their daughter's unexpected engagement. The senator is watching his right-wing constituency evaporate with the scandalous demise of his closet political ally. A visit to the future in-laws could be just the thing to take the public's focus off the Keeley's messy predicament. With the impending visit of his fiancee's rigid family, Val asks his father to straighten up the apartment just a bit. All it entails is the removal or Armand's collection, furnishings, clothes, job...and Albert.

The great improvisational comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May reunited to (respectively) direct and write this update of the French comedy La Cage Aux Folles. Robin Williams stars as a gay Miami nightclub owner who is forced to play it straight and ask his drag-queen partner (Nathan Lane) to hide out when Williams's son invites his prospective--and highly conservative--in-laws and fiancée to a meet-and-greet dinner party. Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest play the straight-laced senator and his wife, and Calista Flockhart (from television's Ally McBeal) plays their daughter in a culture-clash with outrageous consequences. May's witty screenplay incorporates some pointed observations about the political landscape of the 1990s and takes a sensitive approach to the comedy's underlying drama. Topping off the action is Hank Azaria in a scene-stealing role as Williams's and Lane's flamboyant housekeeper, "Agador Spartacus." --Jeff Shannon