Adam & Steve (DVD)

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"Adam & Steve" is a rare gay-themed film in that none of the characters are dead, dying or stricken with any numbers of incurable diseases. That in and of itself is a welcome change of pace. But this movie does something else not regularly seen on the big screen: two gay characters who find companionship and love, riding off into the sunset together.

The film starts off in 1980, with a goth Adam (Craig Chester) and Rhonda (Parker Posey) at a gay club in New York. A dancer with big hair, body glitter and enough cocaine for the both of them named Steve ("Caroline in the City"s Malcolm Gets) takes a liking to him and they decide to hook up. The easiest way to describe the encounter is it´s a disaster. Now, 17 years later, they run into each other again, though neither remembers the other. Predictably, relationship drama rears its ugly head when Steve realizes how he knows Adam.

It should be noted, fairly early on, that this is a romantic comedy with one major gross out scene within the first twenty minutes. When it comes onto the screen, you´ll know it. And that scene isn´t anything like the typical first date problems most couples are apt to encounter. Unfortunately, that´s about all "new" material there is in "Adam & Steve". The rest of the film is basically stock footage from any number of other films and television shows.

Both of the leads have a best (heterosexual) friend, in this case Rhonda and Michael (Chris Kattan). They are perhaps the biggest wasted opportunity here. The extent of their participation in the movie is to provide the smart comment and, presumably, a counterpoint to the gay relationship-the centerpiece of the film. These two characters (and that´s exactly what they are-characters as opposed to people) aren´t written or acted badly; rather, the audience doesn´t need to see yet another straight relationship in what is, by its very premise, a gay film.

If Chester (the writer, director and lead actor) was hell bent on including both Posey and Kattan in the "friend" roles, it´s perfectly valid. Just give them something substantial to do. It´s a complete waste of both their talents for them to be relegated to a handful of scenes which are so completely over the top they aren´t even merely characters anymore. They transcend into the level of caricatures. There is a scene roughly halfway through the film that becomes so unfunny it´s nearly painful to watch. Rhonda, in this scene, informs Michael she can´t eat a pie with him because, as she puts it, the beast will be unleashed. The next morning (according to movie time), Adam and Steve find food strewn about the apartment and the two of them in bed together.

If Rhonda and Michael display what is wrong with this movie, other parts clearly show where it stays on track. The scenes that feature the titular characters learning each other´s personality quirks are where the movie finds it´s footing. That´s as it should be, isn´t it, in a romantic comedy? Really, the only portions featuring them that do not work are the sequences with the parents. Adam´s family is a Jewish family prone to accidents. While hilariously funny, there is no real point in seeing them. They aren´t a factor in the plot, nor do they have to approve of Steve so the two can continue dating.

There is more of a justification for Steve´s parents, though. They are a seemingly conservative couple from the Midwest who are perfectly content to love their gay son as long as he doesn´t openly show he´s gay. (That is mostly assumption based on the dialogue in the scene.) The crucial part for them comes when Steve decides he isn´t going to hide being gay in his house anymore. There is a requisite speech to this effect. It´s not a standout piece of writing, but it one of the more concrete visuals the audience is given in regards to the deepening relationship.

Chester and others claim this isn´t a political film per se in the extras. However, in our current political climate, just about anything with gay lead characters is going to be political, whether it is intended or not. I point to that scene I just spoke about in regards to Steve´s parents. Not only does he make a mini-speech about expressing healthy emotion with the folks around, but then he grabs Adam´s hand as a punctuation mark to the statement. Adam is reluctant, mostly due to his luck with getting things thrown at him in public when he shows any feeling toward another man. And what is the parental reaction? Almost non-existent, as it should be in a perfect world. Yet these characters don´t live in a perfect world. They don´t even live in the audience´s reality; they live in their own.

This reality lets them deal with one event at a time, namely a relationship, an injured dog, a wedding or whatever else comes their way. We never get to see their first (or any) fight. To be perfectly fair, a vicious fight scene was deleted from the final film and can be seen in the extras. For whatever reason, all these characters feel like simpler versions of what they should be. Really, the entire film feels too simple. We don´t really need complex and elaborate plots in every film out there but something a little more substantial than what is presented would have been more welcome.

As is, "Adam & Steve" is an enjoyable diversion for 99 minutes. Sadly, nothing more and nothing less. It doesn´t have anything of great consequence to say and no message to speak of. If anything, the message itself is even too simple: always tell the truth. A lot of the drama near the end would have been eliminated, as well as the dance-off climax. That would have been too easy, especially for this film. I can understand not mentioning the "accident" when Steve figured it out, but he terribly overreacts, as do the other three main characters. Steve runs away from Adam and steals a kid´s bike. If he had enough confidence in the relationship to introduce Adam to his parents and to show affection, he should have been confident enough to be completely honest. As for that story…Steve tells Michael, Michael tells Rhonda…Michael and Rhonda tell Adam. It´s like one big game of "telephone". The only thing here is that the story doesn´t get distorted.