Bruno

Bruno was the kind of movie that I will see over and over. I am not usually a fan of movies starring children, and I generally look for some (intelligent) action. This dreamy story of an angelic, cross-dressing young boy was presented with style and compassion and offered a lesson in respect. Run don't walk to rent it!

What were all of these fine stars thinking when they agreed to be involved with this chaos? I truly mean no offense to those of you here who love this film, but good grief! As has been mentioned, it was too ambiguous about what it was trying to say (if anything). The writers really needed to decide on the story they wanted to tell. Was this supposed to be about a kid responding to a religious epiphany, or a kid experiencing a gender identity crisis? The script insists that it's the former, so let's assume for the sake of argument that's the case. (See "Ma Vie en Rose" for a definitive film on the latter.)

If we're to believe that Bruno's choices come from a vision he had rather than confusion regarding gender or other issues, the film should have depicted him trying to imitate angels and religious figures by dressing in robes, not Cher's castoffs. (That could've been just as interesting, maybe more so -- I'm sure the Catholic school would've found Bruno's imitations of the Pope or Jesus just as shocking.) I find it impossible to believe that a boy that age would calmly discuss his La Cage aux Folles wardrobe as his way to open people's eyes to the beauty of Heaven, that he's not afraid of dying at the hands of people who would want to kill him for appearing in public this way, ad nauseam. (The conversation about all this between Bruno and grandmother MacLaine was absurd.)

If Bruno's motivations had been based on confusion, I would be the first to defend his right to wear dresses and appear feminine. This makes all the difference, and this is what I find offensive about this story passing itself off as a testament to tolerance. Unless there's a darn good reason for it, who in their right mind would let their nine-year-old boy run around looking like that? We're not talking about boys imitating Roman warriors, the Pope, Dalai Lama, and other historic figures Bruno cites in his argument to nun Kathy Bates (delivered with far too much confidence for a little boy coming from a screwed-up broken home, genius be damned). We're talking about a boy (who keeps insisting he doesn't want to be a girl, yeahrightsure) wearing decidedly feminine dresses, sequins and tiaras, MAKEUP and WIGS. AAHHGGHH!! These ensembles, fetching though they may be, have nothing to do with visions of angels or holy vestments. The kid is a mini drag queen, and the adults are wrong to encourage him in such outrageous public display, especially at school. Age nine is far too young to understand the implications of such things. The film gives the impression that anyone who has trouble with Bruno's actions is intolerant, homophobic, etc. What nonsense. Another reviewer said there are plenty of straight men who dress up in women's clothing. The key word is MEN.

I will say that the film looks very nice and some of the performances are fine. Alex Linz does a great job, but his dialogue is badly written; it simply doesn't ring true of a child. I'm simply not convinced that, having been through all Bruno supposedly has been through in his short life, he would be so self-assured.

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.

Well, this looks like a film many people (most?) didn't get. Should have got a lot more credits than it seems to have gotten. Not sure why at all it flunked the critical course. It's quite good and seems to have been Shirley MacLaine's first directing job. So, go see it or rent it. BTW, there is nothing in it of floating in clouds of spirituality over Peru, for those who have worried about that sort of thing over the course of Ms. MacLaine's almost always very distinguished career.

The movie is kind of like a home movie done by an extremely talented director and a lot of other talented movie pros: it's not that it's amateurish at all; its rather that it doesn't try for finished Hollywood effects much. Just lets things out, sometimes to play, sometimes not. It's very, very well directed but not in a usual or common or regular sense. Shirley MacLaine may do her best at what you might call encouraging and allowing her actors (including herself) to do "fresh" things onscreen. Sort of like, "OK, go!" Really nice spirit about almost all of the show.

And, like most good or better creations, the film doesn't at all go out of its way to explain the story it's showing you. Good. That means it's real hard to put it in a category. Also Good. It's some kind of comedy AND drama, I suppose, but please don't call it a comedy-drama, I think.

The young hero, played by Alex Linz, is a quite wonderful "open" part. Again the movie does not try to explain, put words on what "exactly", "precisely" <groan> his motivations are (to win the National Catholic Spelling Bee <really>) while most of the time wearing girl-woman dress, often flamboyant. Kathy Bates as the head of the Catholic grade school he attends is wonderful, too, a quite masculine and tough (and funny) nun who just won't tolerate the boy, for awhile. And there are quite a few nice drop-ins from actors like Jennifer Tilly. Gary Sinese, who I usually think of as a great villain or great sickone, or both, is wonderful as a trying-to-be tough cop who was labelled sissy when he was his hero son's age, not least by his mother, Shirley MacLaine.

I liked David Cuminello's script a lot. Got the impression he may not have written all of it???

In all, a quite different film that is well worth watching, wherever. Far from run of the mill, as they say.

I'm a little afraid to give it the 6 rating I've put on it, but I think I should stop worrying because I am a hard grader. Somewhere between 6 and 7 is I think where it belongs, and where I hope it's getting to on IMDB.

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.