An Affirmative Act

This isn't some warm and fuzzy inspirational Lifetime movie.

Charles Durning gives his usual fine performance, and Costas Mandylor is quite good as his partner in the video. We're never quite sure what's going on, but I think the video is supposed to be promoting family values and opposing what the women are trying to promote.

Eric Etebari and Rachael Robbins both give really good performances as the lawyer and investigator who are married to each other. And so does Ed Kershen as the judge. I don't know who any of these people are, but they all do a good job. When Robbins' character investigates, there is a truly funny scene where she wears too much makeup and shows off her other ... assets.

I was also impressed by Charles Grady as the detective.

And Elissa Goldstein does a great job as the prettier of the two women who are married. She is really likable. I can't say the same for Candice Holdorf, who was trying to be the man, but she has her good moments, mostly later. She does emotional and passionate really well.

Sometimes the music suggests humor when I didn't see any. But there are occasional laughs.

There is plenty of controversy to be uncovered, and one more funny character who seems to be gay, but I don't know his name.

And things get really crazy before the end. You won't see this coming, because I don't know that any other movie like this has ended this way. But it is a satisfying ending.

Is it worth seeing? It's certainly different, and while it's no masterpiece, this movie has a cause to promote and does that, even if it is heavy on the antiquated extremist values.

As someone who has been in the middle of the intersection between religion and politics my entire life, I found everything except the judge deciding to set up his own extra-judicial court believable. I have seen shenanigans very similar to this movie being enacted in the real world. I even looked to see if this was a real case, which it wasn't. I was involved in fighting one of the early Defense of Marriage Act bills and saw a conservative governor trade killing the bill for passing another bill that provided financial value to one of his cronies.

However the movie was a melodrama and could have had a more subtle portrayal of the issues involved without losing its message. The acting was mediocre and the characters lacked subtlety. The denouement could have been revealed earlier in the film and made the defendants seem more committed to their cause. I would have liked to have seen them working together more. After all, they were a married couple. The lawyers seemed simultaneously impotent and omnipotent. There have been enough real world legal battles over this issue, that a bit of research could have created more tension than the movie had. Altogether, the movie was not a serious attempt to treat a serious subject seriously.