Single All The Way (Netflix)
Starring Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, Kathy Najimy, Luke Macfarlane, Barry Bostwick, Jennifer Robertson, and Jennifer Coolidge
Directed by Michael Mayer
Rating: ** ½
Normally, in a film about gay couples the problem is that one of the two persons in the relationship doesn’t want to come out, or one of the two persons sharing a gay relationship takes his partner to meet his family without telling them about the true nature of their relationship.
Last year in the dreadfully dehydrated Last Season the smashing Kristen Stewart(out in real life) accompanied her partner home for Christmas without telling the partner’s family that when they sleep together they don’t get much sleep.
The problem in the delightful Single All The Way is that there is no problem. Peter(Michael Urie) is about to go home for Christmas with his lover when Peter’s house-mate Nick(Philemon Chambers) discovers that Peter’s lover is married and happy(and only pretending to be unmarried and gay). In a fit of desperation Peter asks Nick to accompany him to his home pretending to be his gay partner.
This is where this fey festy feelgood film departs from all the lightweight or heavy LGBTQ films. Everybody knows. There is no pretence, no subterfuge no artifice involved in the main protagonist’s sexual preference. His family knows Peter is gay. Their worry is not about his sexuality but about his inability to find a partner.Happily, Peter’s entire family is on it, doing their utmost to foist the affable Nick on Peter.His two nieces even pretend to sleep in Peter’s bed , so he would have to share Nick’s bed.
The blissed-out scenario is borderline burlesque but beautifully self deprecatory,drawing attention to the Nick-Peter companionship’s compatibility quotient without letting gender be an issue. It’s a tricky situation,and one that could have been an elephant-in-the-room kind of problem.
Single All The Way charms us into looking at the protagonists as a gender-free pair . We talk about cinema being rooted to a humaneness that liberates relationships of their gender and sexual biases. Hardly film achieves this state of freedom. Single All The Way does it, and that too within the gauzy romcom space.
To be able to bring a gay couple to the state of complete social acceptance is no small achievement for a feelgood film.Single All The Way is smart smooth and attractive. The performances are not constructed to win Oscars. But the actors love their characters. And Jennifer Coolidge as a busty raunchy spaced-out aunt is a hoot.
Single All The Way breaks a ceiling or two while doing its own variation on the thorny issue of gay relationships and their acceptance within the family fold. To cite an example, the guy whom Nick is persuaded to date by his family is not your stereotypical vain jerk but a genial regular guy. And you would expect Peter’s parents(the wonderful Cathy Najimy and Barry Botswick) to be in denial about their son’s sexual orientation.
This is not a film that encourages prejudice. It embraces the idea of a world where it won’t matter anymore who is black or white(for the record, Nick is Black and Peter is White) and who is gay or straight.