From under my bed comes the sound of a low, menacing growl. My carpet has some new stains on it and Im dopey from missing most of my last three nights of sleep. "What have I done?" I wonder out loud.
About a week ago, in a moment of weakness, I agreed to do a trial adoption of the cutest, sweetest little doggie you ever laid eyes on. A friend of a friend had rescued him from a construction site in the heart of Washington, DC. After making all the appropriate calls to the appropriate shelters, posting notices on trees in the neighborhood where he was found, running a "Found" ad in the newspaper and investing a small fortune in vet and grooming bills, this friend of a friend decided that she couldnt keep the pup! Her well-trained, fully-grown, adult retriever was most distressed by the commotion caused by this scared-to-be-with-people-and scared-to-be-without-them malnourished, eight month old miniature poodle. So the little guy came home with me and by that evening, I knew that Harry was here to stay.
We spent one of our first evenings together watching Marvins Room, one of those really should-see films that I managed not to see. The stellar cast is worth the price of popcorn alone and theres not a shabby performance in the lot. Bessie [Diane Keaton] has recently been diagnosed with leukemia by her bumbly Doctor Wally [Robert Di Niro] and his wacky brother Bob [Dan Hedaya], who is filling in for the she-just-up-and-quit[!] receptionist. Bessies search for a bone marrow donor necessitates contact with her only sister Lee [Meryl Steep], whom she hasnt seen in twenty years. Lee gathers up her two sons, Hank [Leonardo DiCaprio], sprung from his residential psych ward for this occasion and his bookwormish, younger brother Charlie [sorry, I missed his name in the credits], who is as dorky and nerdy as Hank is good-looking and cool.
The trio arrives in Florida to be greeted by Aunt Ruth [Gwen Verdon] and her electric-shock chronic pain management gadget that also functions as an automatic garage door opener. Aunt Ruth and Charlie bond around her obsession for one particular soap opera and his tendency to live vicariously by silently observing others. One of the most tender scenes in the movie is when Charlie patiently and artlessly applies a full face of make-up on Ruth as she prepares to attend the wedding of her favorite soap-opera stars... from the privacy of her own room, of course. Everyone gushes over the finished product as Ruth struggles to suppress her own laughter at her clownish image in the hand mirror. How wonderful it was to have a young boy show this kind of love and tenderness and to have his gesture accepted and affirmed by everyone in the household! There were no homo jokes either!!
Bessie senses in Hank his need to feel connected to SOMETHING in this world and courts his emotions by sharing her own simple sense of rightnessin taking care of batty Aunt Ruth, entertaining her wordless, totally dependent father Marvin [Hume Cronyn] with flashes of light from a pocket mirror, and passing down Marvins old tool chest to Hank, his first grandchild...no strings attached. She loves Hank unconditionally, because he is her family; she needs no other reason. Hank does find his connections, not only to his aunt, but also to his wordless grandfather and even to his maybe-shes-not-as-bad-at-she-seems mother.
Lee revisits old hurts and resentments, those she feels towards Bessie and those delivered to her by her troubled son Hank. Her own wobbly sense of self-esteem is expressed in her pride about being "almost ready" to get her degree in cosmetology. As some of the sisterly wounds heal and Lee finds the courage to feel the love that still exists between them, Lee restyles and updates Bessies chemo-wig, much to the familys delight. Through Bessies acceptance of her difficult fate, Lee learns to be more accepting as a daughter, niece and mother.
I think I know what Ive done now. As I get down on all fours, "Snausage" in hand as an enticement to the scared, adorable creature attempting to protect himself from I-dont-know-what, I understand that, though its not much fun at the moment, Ive agreed to love an imperfect being...kind of like Bessie and Lee and the gang. I wonder how Harry would look in a wig.
Marge Tolchin is a film critic "wannabe" who frequents movie houses in both Washington, D.C. and Rehoboth Beach in search of positive gay and lesbian images.
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7/25/97 Issue. Copyright 1997 by CAMP Rehoboth, Inc. All rights reserved.