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The Birdcage

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7.0/10 • 1.2K

1996-03-081h 59m

Comedy

Come as you are.

Middle-aged gay life partners, Armand Goldman, a Jewish drag club owner, and Albert, the club's flamboyant star attraction, live in the eclectic community of South Beach and have raised a straight son. Now, their newly engaged son, 20-year-old Val, wants to bring his fiancée, Barbara, and her ultraconservative parents home to meet his family for the first time. By Val's request, Armand pretends to be straight, not Jewish and attempts to hide his relationship with Albert, in order to please Barbara's father, controversial right-wing Republican Sen. Kevin Keeley.

Directors
Mike Nichols
Editors
Arthur Schmidt

Top Billed Cast

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  1. Robin Williams

    Robin Williams

    Armand Goldman

  2. Gene Hackman

    Gene Hackman

    Senator Kevin Keeley

  3. Nathan Lane

    Nathan Lane

    Albert

  4. Dan Futterman

    Dan Futterman

    Val Goldman

  5. Dianne Wiest

    Dianne Wiest

    Louise Keeley

  6. Calista Flockhart

    Calista Flockhart

    Barbara Keeley

  7. Hank Azaria

    Hank Azaria

    Agador

  8. Christine Baranski

    Christine Baranski

    Katharine Archer

  9. Tom McGowan

    Tom McGowan

    Harry Radman

Reviews1

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CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Jan 14, 2024

7/10

I remember thinking that Dan Futterman was quite attractive in this film as the young "Val", but boy does his turn out to be one of the most selfish and thoughtless of characters! He turns up at the eponymous nightclub run by his father "Armand" (Robin Williams) and his consort of twenty years "Albert" (Nathan Lane) to announce he is to wed. Thing is, he is going to marry the daughter of the rather puritanical senator "Keeley" (Gene Hackman) and so they are going to have to play happy, heterosexual, families when the prospective in-laws come to visit. "Armand" manages his disappointment rather better than his lover who, inclined to the histrionic at the best of times, takes it as all as a personal slight and a mega-strop ensues. Meantime, the worthy senator gets some shocking news of his own involving a colleague and a hooker! Suddenly he needs to get away, and so to the "Birdcage" he, wife "Louise" (Dianne Wiest) and intended bride "Barbara" (Calista Flockhart) duly head. The press get wind of this, and of the fact that it's a fairly ostentatious gay club - and so are just praying to get some snaps of this visit. Can the family stay on a even keel long enough for the estranged mother "Katherine" (Christine Baranski) to arrive, and can they manage to avoid implicating the holier-than-thou politician in the mother of all scandals? Time hasn't been especially kind to this, but Williams and an excellently hammy Nathan Lane do well keeping the momentum going as we to and fro with tantrums a-plenty. Weist and Hackman work well too, but the starring role has to belong to Hank Azaria's camp "Agador" who takes crop-tops to an whole new level. Jean Pouret's original play was written with it's tongue in it's cheek and this updates, but essentially carries on, the tradition of light farce. Stereoptypes galore? Yep, but they're still fun performances that are worth a watch.

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  • The Birdcage poster
  • The Birdcage poster
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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$31,000,000.00
Revenue
$185,300,000.00
Keywords
coming outfloridahomophobiadrag queennightclubsenatorpoliticianbased on play or musicalremakeconservativecross dressinggay parentlgbtpolitical conflictsouth beachplaying straightdrag club