It's important that everyone goes and spends money to see this in the theatres. Opening weekend would be preferred. Otherwise movies with gay characters will continue to remain hard to get made and then released! This is our chance!
I'm afraid at least one long-term gay rights activist would probably disagree with you, Eric. Mark Segal is the publisher of the
Philadelphia Gay News and has been active in the gay rights movement since the 1970s. In his own column in this week's edition of the paper, he calls it "by far the worst LGBT film of 2010," and, worse, "the Amos and Andy film of gay people."
Segal describes Carrey's Steven Russell as "a stereotypical gay character we have not seen in decades" [apparently Segal has forgotten Jack in
Will and Grace--J.W.]. He goes on:
"This fim plays to the worst stereotypes while pretending to be entertainment. It's disguised as a film for sophisticated individuals in large metropolitan urban cities. The problem is it is in wide release. One question: Would you want this film to be the first film about gays people see? Just imagine someone in Mississippi or Alabama watching the swishy thief--and, oh, let's not forget his ex-lover/kept boy who, to add a little sympathy to the story, dies of AIDS.
"Yes, this is the perfect film about gay men your right-wing Christian Republican wants to see. A swishy thief who either dies or ends up in prison."
He concludes, "A film with gay characters can still be trash. And that's where this film belongs, in a trashcan."