Gray Matters

On the surface this may seem frivolous, a light, somewhat implausible comedy with affable characters. A girl lives with her brother. She finds herself attracted to his fiancé,and irony ensues. It is, in that respect, a bit formulaic. However, Graham gives a very moving, underrated performance here. I considered myself liberal enough. I favored civil unions, but that was all. I succumbed to the generalization that it was a reasonable compromise. But, I watched a girl crying in an elevator, relating to her brother that she couldn't be GAY because she could never have a normal life. She could never marry. It changed my mind. That is a performance worthy of note.

Unfortunately, the film is the mud as well as the gem. Two perfect beauties, two usually miscast actors in roles that befit them, a rather original script... it all should have gone great. However, the overall directing of the movie is superficial, most of the support actors play badly and the script oscillates between very good and very bad.

The idea of the movie was nice, the overall setup, but the ending just blew and the hysterical explosions of badly acted emotion over badly written lines were like giants craters in the road to liking the film.

Bottom line: if you are looking for a romantic comedy, this at least has some brain and a definite direction away from stereotypes, even if it doesn't avoid them all. But the quality of it isn't great.

Sure, there are a lot of things in "Gray Matters" that don't make sense. Some of the casting is slightly off, sometimes the characters slip into dialogue that seems to be cribbed from an after school special, sometimes the characters conveniently forget things just for the sake of moving the plot along. However, despite the obvious missteps, "Gray Matters", in the end, remains watchable and entertaining.

The film begins the way a lot of romantic comedies begin - with dancing. Sam and Gray waltz around a New York City loft, easily imitating scenes from their shared love of 1940's musicals. They seem the perfect couple - if only they weren't related... and therein lies the, yes, I'll admit - thin and silly premise upon which the film is based. You see, Sam and Gray are best friends and siblings. They grew up together, they live together, they speak in dialogue reminiscent of screwball comedies (or Lorelai and Rory from "Gilmore Girls", if that's the reference you prefer). Enter Bridget Moynahan as Charlie, the love interest they are about to share, to shake up their entire relationship and Gray's entire world. A wacky love triangle ensues, as do many, many romantic comedy clichés, made all the more clear by Molly Shannon as Gray's kooky best friend.

Misunderstandings and secrets abound as Gray starts to figure out who she really is, Charlie doesn't have a clue about anything, and Sam grows increasingly nervous. Despite all the silliness and illogical plot transitions, though, "Gray Matters" is, at its heart, a sweet, positive coming out movie. If you can suspend disbelief long enough to believe Heather Graham as a woman questioning her sexuality, it's easy to relate to her realization and subsequent meltdown, and the film takes just the right tone. The film has just enough exuberance to help you get over the illogical ending, too.

Granted, "Kissing Jessica Stein" does what this film attempts to do so much better, but nonetheless, "Gray Matters" is entertaining and fun.

I went to the Hampton's Film Festival in East Hampton this past weekend and saw a wonderful romantic comedy called Gray Matters. The film's overall look and message had a tone similar to one of my favorite directors, Nora Ephron. There was a delightful air of Harry Met Sally combined with You've Got Mail. The references throughout the movie to the 40's were superb. One of my favorite scenes was the opening shot where the two main characters Gray and Sam (brother and sister) ballroom dance to the tune of Cheek to Cheek, sung by actress Jane Krakowski. The footage of Manattan with Cheek to Cheek playing in the background had a feeling of a Woody Allen film. I thought the dialogue was not only funny but witty and timely. Molly Shannon delivers one of the funniest scenes in the movie referring to Oprah Winfrey and how she would surrogate a baby for Oprah and Steadman because she loves Oprah so much. It had the audience in hysterics. Heather Graham gives the performance of her career as a quirky, can't make up her mind, ad executive who struggles with her sexuality after meeting and falling in love with her brother's fiancée. Miss Graham was born to play to this role. At times she reminded me of a young Goldie Hawn. I stayed for the Q and A after the movie and was amazed to find out that the budget on this film was a 10th of what it appeared to be. If this was Sue Kramer's directorial debut, bravo, I look forward to seeing her next attempt at taking the helm. I would like to recommend this film for audiences of all ages. As I walked out of the theatre in East Hampton, I over heard an elderly woman around the age of 80 say " What a lovely film, I hope my granddaughters get a chance to see it".

While watching "Gray Matters" - which marks the film-making debut of writer/director Sue Kramer - I kept wondering if maybe I hadn't somehow stumbled back into "Puccini for Beginners," a movie I'd seen a few weeks earlier, since both are oddly similar, equally implausible tales of Manhattan yuppies involved in romantic triangles of the bisexual kind.

Gray and Sam are siblings who not only live in the same apartment and spend most of their free time together but are so emotionally attached to one another that people often mistake them for a romantic couple. As if that weren't queasy enough, the screenplay ups the ante by having the hitherto heterosexual Gray suddenly "discover" she's a lesbian when she falls for Sam's gorgeous new wife, Charlie (yes, I know all this can be a bit confusing, but Charlie is a woman).

As with "Puccini," most of what happens in "Gray Matters" feels contrived and artificial. We don't believe for a second that two seemingly rational people like Sam and Charlie would become engaged after only a single date, or that even an indecisive ditz like Gray would be this in-the-dark about her own sexuality.

Thus, with so little of the storyline grounded in anything even closely resembling reality, we find ourselves detached from the characters and indifferent to their fates. That's no denigration of the lead players - Heather Graham, Thomas Cavanaugh and Bridget Monahan - all of whom are appealing and likable in their various roles. And there are some sharp supporting performances by Molly Shannon, Alan Cumming, and Sissy Spacek as Gray's loopy therapist (though there is a brief cameo appearance by singer Gloria Gaynor that is pure unadulterated pandering). Moreover, New York City looks all sparkly and shiny as seen through the lens of cinematographer John S. Bartley's camera.

With its countless references to 40's musicals and romantic comedies, "Gray Matters" clearly sees itself as both an homage and a throwback to the metier and style of those earlier films. But we are obviously living in different times, and the labored setups and screwball comedy devices that worked so well in the past feel pretty darned anachronistic and forced when employed today. My feeling is that if you're going to make a modern romantic comedy, one that deals with such "contemporary" issues as coming out and sexual identity, then make a movie that actually feels modern. Don't try to tuck it safely away in the past, then expect us to take any of it seriously. Despite it's taking on those relatively gutsy issues, "Gray Matters" really doesn't exist in anyone's world, and certainly not in the racially and economically diverse world of 21st Century Manhattan.

"Gray Matters" presents us with life as only those in the movies ever really live it.