I finally saw “Birdcage”, Mike Nichol’s remake of “La Cage aux Folles”.
That is a bad movie. Okay, maybe the movie isn’t bad, but the script was. It was set bound (a problem faced by many play transcriptions) and told more than showed (another problem typical of movies drawn from plays).
There was bad casting, e.g., 30 year olds trying to play 18 and 20. There was torturous exposition. But the thing in the script that seemed beyond comprehension was the first meeting between an 18 year old son and his birth mother. “Hi Mom.”
Done.
That was it. Whaaaaaa? Exactly how does that work?
Robin Williams was wonderfully understated, and Nathan Lane could have been better with a better script.