Bruno

Maclaine does as superb job with her first directorial debut: Bruno (The Dress Code DVD title).

This movie pulls at the heart strings at points, and tickles the funny bone at others. All performances were excellent. Alex Linz has come a long way with his acting. He wasn't too great in Home Alone 3, but shines in Bruno.

The story is original and clever. A young boy named Bruno (linz), has a dream/vision that he is being chased by an angel, which is a nightly thing for him. During a hospital visit ( after a car accident), he is at the gates of heaven. Though it is not his time, he is dressed in the robes of an angel.

When he comes out of his slight coma, he besides that wearing dresses is as close to his spiritual gown. Calling them "holy vestments", He goes through his days in "drag".

Also a genius speller, Bruno challenges the Catholic faith and church, focusing his attention on opening peoples eyes to the beauty of Heaven...Through wearing dresses.

Maclaine plays the Bruno's grandmother, who, with her own son, bruno's father, was very dominant and aggressive. Boys didn't listen to Oprea, that was for sissies. Well, I don't like getting into too much detail...

Take heed, the movie is exception...the acting is great...and newcomer, angie, Bruno's obese mother was excellent.

8 out of 10

This funny, quirky, and touching story of individuality and tolerance makes it one of 2000's best films.

David Ciminello's film writing debut and Shirley Maclaine's second directorial opus populates the screen with the most memorable characters since "Matilda," "Gilbert Grape," and "Christmas Story." Bruno Battaglia (expertly played by Alex D. Linz) is an eight-year-old prodigy who aspires to win the National Catholic School Spelling Competition and its grand prize, an all expense paid trip to Rome for a private audience with the Pope. After a near-death experience and encounter with angels, he resolves to compete wearing various dresses (which he insists are "holy vestments"), much to the distress of the Long Island school's nuns (Kathy Bates as Mother Superior, Lainie Kazan and Brett Butler as his teachers) and the ridicule of his classmates.

Bruno's morbidly obese mother (Stacey Halprin), his estranged father who is ashamed of his son (Gary Sinese), his hyper-masculine grandmother (Shirley Maclaine), and his Annie Oakleyesque best friend (Kiami Davael) round out the cast with stellar performances. Watch for cameos by Gwen Verdon and Jennifer Tilly.

Although this movie is interesting to a point I had a difficult time deciding what the point was supposed to be. Yes, the young boy is "unique" but that alone is not enough to carry the movie. So much about this movie is obvious and contrived that the characters become caricatures; and poorly developed caricatures at that. The overweight mother, the frustrated father, the curmudgeon grandmother with a heart of gold. All the characters end up simply seeming odd if not downright strange.

There is much wasted talent here also. Kathy Bates, Gary Sinise, and even Shirley MacLaine are all actors of unquestioned talent but they are all hampered by a very weak screenplay.

This could have been an interesting movie but there are too many weak points. Ultimately it fails. One is left asking, "So what"?

I thought for this to be Shirley's first directing job, she was amazing behind the camera. I hope that she will do more movies with Shirley herself in there. But then again, as I remember, she said she hated directing herself. Alex was great, Gary was wonderful, Stacie and Kiami took over the screen, and everybody else really took control of the movie. Although this is December, for the rest of this month, if you live on the West Coast, you can see it on Starz Movie Channel. Then you can check her website to read more about this movie. I don't know about anybody else, but I give this movie about 9 1/2 to 10 stars.

This film seemingly attempts to take on a number of serious subjects, mostly relating to the rejection of people based upon characteristics which have nothing to do with their essential personality (e.g., weight, skin color, cross-dressing), and to send the message that being different is okay, and that friends accept friends the way they are (and that parents *should* accept their kids the way they are). But it treats these serious topics in such a superficial manner, it is hard to discern what lesson a kid might draw from this fim.

Make no mistake - this is a kid's film. It's rambling, somewhat incoherent presentation is not likely to hold an adult's interest. Yet it's subject matter is likely to dissuade many adults from letting their children watch. The film initially attracted my attention because the capsule summary surprised me (Something about a cross-dressing spelling champion at a Catholic school), and Kathy Bates usually gives strong performances. Her part is relatively small, and as it turns out it was the acting competence of Alex Linz which (to the extent possible) held the movie together.

My impression is that this film was, at least in some degree, inspired by the French film, "Ma Vie en Rose", which addresses the issue of a child's cross-dressing and gender identity in a very direct manner. Here, the American film-makers avoided any of the psychological implications behind cross-dressing behavior, and instead provided a very contrived explanation for the child's desire to cross-dress. While the French precursors to American films aren't always that appealing to American audiences, it is amazing to me that American filmmakers can squeeze all of the innovation - and all of the daring - out of those films as they remake them for American audiences.

If this film was intended to send the message of accepting people the way they are, some of the comments about this film, to me, highlight its failings. This wasn't a serious attempt to take on the subject of cross-dressing. Having worked as a divorce lawyer, I can tell you that this behavior is not as rare as some think - within the heterosexual community. This impression has been reinforced by discussions with professionals from hospital emergency rooms, who are in a unique position to observe some unusual choices of undergarment. Had this film been more daring, it would have presented cross-dressing in a realistic manner, rather than hiding behind a pseudo-religious, neutral excuse for the behavior.

While I can understand why an American studio executive would get nervous at the thought of addressing this subject head-on, I think the disingenuous treatment of the central focus of the film serves to undermine its message, and essentially turned this into a film without an audience. Shirley MacLaine was willing to hint at her subtext in the opening credits - "A film by (A film bi) Shirley MacLaine" - but didn't stand behind her convictions. Granted, had she done so, she still might have ended up with a film without an audience, but it may well have been a better film.