Ideal Home
Starring Paul Rudd, Steve Coogan, Jack Gore, and Alison Pill
Directed by Andrew Fleming
Reviewed by Michael Dalton
[rating: 1/5]
Bearing witness to the alarmingly superficial comedy Ideal Home, I had no idea that director Andrew Fleming had based his screenplay on his own adventures as one half of a gay couple raising a child. Why would I? Could a life-changing experience be this trite? Written to be touching, feel good funny, and show us the challenges that come with such a responsibility, we instead get a movie full of missed opportunities, corny and clichéd jokes (yes even a framed photo of the couple meeting Liza Minnelli), and a grating, obnoxious “performance” by Steve Coogan as Erasmus, an “outrageous” food expert with his own cooking show which is directed by his partner Paul, (Paul Rudd), who describes Erasmus as “a gay Butch Cassidy but not butch”. Paul understandably suffers from anxiety attacks. Be warned, they’re contagious.
The lives of Erasmus and Paul are lavish with gourmet dinners for their friends, gallons of fine wine, and no responsibility beyond themselves. I started wondering if Cher would show up but instead a little redheaded boy does who turns out to be Erasmus’s grandson (Jack Gore), a grandson he didn’t know existed. Erasmus’s own son, now an incarcerated criminal, was the result of experimenting in his wilder days (“I was probably off my tits on Quaaludes” he clucks) and now he and Paul are stuck with the end result. What a shame the child, who refuses to reveal his embarrassing name, is so unlikable. He’s insolent, barely speaks, loves video games, and demands Taco Bell, morning, noon, and night. The youngster soon settles into grampa’s glamorous Santa Fe mansion, hears the boys making whoopee, stumbles across their private movie collection (Bareback Mountain!!!), and reads out a school report, complete with expletives, about life at home. The trio even go to a birthday party where their hostess is horrified that men like Erasmus and Paul have been given beer instead of wine. When we finally arrive at the happy ending after a near tragedy (its as if, praise the lord, half a dozen scenes had been removed for expediency), the little charmer, surprise surprise, now prefers a la carte.
Who is this movie for? So watered down with a hefty dose of bitchy gay humour and plenty of nods to all things queer, it left me depressed (and my companion asleep). Is this the best a gay filmmaker could come up with? Aside from Paul Rudd, undoubtedly one of the finest characters around, all we get are one-dimensional characters, a rushed courtroom showdown, and still more Taco Bell. Such is the lack of insight, Fleming’s clearly aiming for broader audiences and bravo to him but the soggy screenplay leaves with you with little more than cheap sentiment. Bette Davis would’ve detested it.
