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I tend to be suspicious of remakes, and an American version of "La Cage aux Folles" (1979) seemed one of the last things we needed. By now, however, you probably know that "The Birdcage" is the most popular comedy of the season. The French original was itself based on a long-running stage play by Jean Poiret; an apparently indestructible farce machine, it simply moves the drag nightclub that provides the title from Saint-Tropez to Miami's South Beach.
Produced and directed by Mike Nichols, with a screenplay by Elaine May that sticks close to the French movie while adding topical U.S. references, "The Birdcage" is an example of topflight Hollywood professionalism.
Armand (Robin Williams) and Albert (Nathan Lane), the homosexual couple at the center of the story, are respectively owner and star transvestite performer of the nightclub. The action, many will remember, is fueled by the desire of Armand's son, Val - who has been brought up by Albert and Armand together - to get married.
The couple register initial disappointment that Val would leave them for a girl, but what makes the situation more complicated - and hilarious is that Barbara (Calista Flockhart) is the daughter of Sen. Kelley (Gene Hackman), cochairman of a right-wing committee for moral purity, with special emphasis on family values.
Barbara, however, reassures her mother (Dianne Wiest) that Vars father is cultural ambassador to Greece, and since the senator hopes that publicity for his daughter's wedding would distract attention from the sex scandal that accompanied the death of the cochairman of his morality committee, the parents agree to drive down to Florida to meet the other set of prospective in-laws.
The movie's political jokes betray a complacent liberalism, but Hackman is totally credible as the selfserving politician, particularly in a wandering monologue that evenhandedly praises the beauties of autumn leaves in different sections of "our great country." Robin Williams is comic as he tries to maintain order, calming his self-dramatizing partner and working hard at playing the respectable father. Nathan Lane, in the...