Outing Riley

I have to give credit to Pete Jones, who wrote, directed and starred in this low-budget 2004 indie, for having the temerity to make a coming-out film when he is apparently straight. And therein lies the rub since Jones doesn't really lend an informed perspective to his protagonist's trying situation. He plays Bobby Riley, a Chicago advertising account executive who happens to be gay and happily partnered. He also happens to come from a traditional Irish-Catholic family, a sister who knows he's gay and three brothers who don't. The movie is primarily about Bobby's struggle to come out to his brothers now that their father has just passed away and the time has come for their annual fishing trip together. While one can envision how Bobby's admission would lead to liberation and tolerance, Jones also superficially belabors Bobby's angst to the aggravating point of making me indifferent to his fate.

A lot of the problem I had with the movie is the predictable and often forced humor Jones employs to ingratiate the character to the viewer. In what strikes me as film-making laziness, he goes as far as breaking the fourth wall, speaking to the camera, and using freeze-frames to either provide thumbnail sketches of the principal characters or comment on the action. The set-up with the brothers is also pretty generic as they represent variations on the beer-guzzling stereotypes one would expect from a movie at least forty years older. Two are married - Luke is a pothead with twin daughters, and Connor is a John Sununu look-alike who surfs the Web for porn. Oldest brother Jack is a Catholic priest, which sets him up for the most challenging road toward acceptance. Once the key revelation occurs, the inevitable ramifications at least allow for the film's few honest moments, the most effective being Luke's angry voicemail message in response to what he sees as Bobby's betrayal.

In his acting debut, the cherubic Jones makes little impression as the bedeviled Bobby. Nathan Fillion, who would later play the smitten doctor in the late Adrienne Shelly's "Waitress", fares the best among the actors portraying the brothers, and Michael McDonald of "MADtv" (not the singer) is surprisingly credible as Bobby's partner Andy. Julie Pearl is forced to play Bobby's sister Maggie as the nagging voice of conscience in order to facilitate the contrived plot conceit that proves disappointing toward the end. Jeff Garlin ("Curb Your Enthusiasm", "I Want to Someone to Eat Cheese With") shows up in a cameo as a blowhard agency honcho trying to recruit Bobby believing him to be straight. I appreciate how Jones does not wrap everything up nicely at the end, although he sadly uses a stereotypical fantasy swimming number to get his point across. The much-delayed 2007 DVD features a commentary track from Jones, interviews and deleted scenes.

OUTING RILEY may feel a bit self serving, as though Bobby Riley, the main character of the film, is sitting in a Confessional Booth revealing his secret, and in fact that is certainly the case as the film was conceived, lived, written, directed and stars Pete Jones as Bobby. This may account for some of the awkward sense of some of the dialog: it is difficult to be up front about an issue with a history as embedded as the theme of this film. But despite these minor flaws, this little film has a heart of gold and a cast of actors who bring it to life in a good way.

Bobby Riley (Pete Jones) is an Irish Catholic closeted gay man living in Chicago with his partner Andy (Michael McDonald). Bobby is being pressured by Andy and by his informed sister Maggie (Julie Pearl) to come out to his family - a good Irish Catholic family of four brothers, a sister, and a dying father (Bob Riley). His facade with his brothers is a mime of voyeurism of 'chicks' and a beer drinking butch life. Each family member has a secret: Maggie can't hold a relationship and is unable to keep secrets; Connor (Stoney Westmoreland) is addicted to internet porn; Jack (Dev Kennedy) is a priest who has problems with the conflicts the church places on his own beliefs; Luke (the always outstanding Nathan Fillion) is a pothead. Once Maggie decides she must out Bobby, the brothers are conflicted: homophobia raises its ugly head despite the bonds of close family ties. How the family comes to grips with Bobby's being gay, individually and as a family, is the crux of the tale.

This is a fine cast (especially Fillion and Pearl) and the story rolls along at a fine pace. At times it feels 'dishonest' but that is in the script, not the acting. This is not a major film, but it just may be a helpful one to families and friends who are curious about the lifestyle of someone who has surprised them with a similar secret! Grady Harp

Here's a novel idea: a movie about a closeted gay Irish-Catholic whose sexual preference is really secondary to his general personality as a sloppy, stupid grown man who acts like a child. With three brothers (one a priest) and a sister, Pete Jones' Bobby Riley finds he has to use a lesbian as a beard and make lots of small talk about women around his siblings (except for sis, who knows the truth). Thirty minutes into the movie, Bobby is up on a neighbor's roof ogling the female resident as she spreads lotion on her legs, while his voice-over informs us he was a voyeur long before a homosexual. So what was writer-director Jones before he was a pseudo-filmmaker? Offensive to just about everyone (gays, lesbians, Irish-Catholics, priests, women in general), this low-budget effort is filled with innuendo-crazed dialogue and a sniggering familial unit by way of a TV sitcom ('funny' scene example: Riley, after sneaking into his priest-brother's confessional booth, pretends to be a little boy who spies on his grandma in the shower). This is just the thing is kill off cinema (not just Queer Cinema, but ANY cinema) forever. Pure drivel. NO STARS from ****

This film is about a young man having to come out to his 4 brothers, including a catholic priest, that he is gay.

I find "Outing Riley" a lot more entertaining than many gay films. For a start, it is made really professionally. It has got nice sets, good camera work and also people who can act! The most refreshing thing of all is that it has no campness, stereotypes or clichés that plagues a lot of these films. Much of the time, I thought I was watching a straight film. It's just like watching "American Pie" at times, for example having 4 guys drinking and goofing around, peeping at hot girls. If the character Andy was changed to a woman, then "Outing Riley" could well have been a typical Hollywood romantic or teenage sex comedy.

That's why it's called ACTING? HELLO? I loved this film! I thought it was well done. WTF is wrong with people? I thought it was a typical macho straight family response to act the way they did, and 'OF COURSE' a family member who is a priest is going to act the way he did. Yes, there were a lot of stereotypes in this film. Hell, stereotypes have got to come from somewhere, right? I know many queer people and gee, we're all one big diverse family just like the rest of the world!

Too many GLBT people are shunned by their family when they 'come out'. Many gay and lesbian bi and trans people lose all contact with family and may end up committing suicide. Especially people under 25. Everybody needs to know that they are LOVED.

Please don't shut GLBT family and friends out of your life.

I loved this movie!