If Dad Only Knew

Watch the movie for what it is: A low budget Indie comedy about a man coming out to his Irish Catholic family. There are no deep meanings or inspirational messages. It is not a "Gay" film, and it never attempted to be one. It is a comedy about a Gay topic. More "Will & Grace" than "Citizen Kane." Seems that most people who didn't like the movie were looking for a deeper meaning. If you are looking for a life affirming movie, or one to truly give you insight as to what it is like to grow up Gay in a straight world, this is not your movie. If you want a light hearted look into coming out to your family where you can shut your brain off and just laugh a little, then give it a shot.

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.

As far as I know, from what I saw on Project Greenlight, Pete Jones isn't gay. So, I'm curious what motivated him to make this film, and to play the gay lead. It's not forbidden - and I'm always happy to see filmmakers portraying gays positively in their work - it just seems a little odd. And, in fact, that's one of the weaknesses of the film: Pete Jones doesn't really come across as gay. I'm not saying he should act effeminate or anything like that. It's just that that there was something not quite "on" about the scenes between his character and the character's boyfriend. At other times, I really got the impression that he'd watched "Jeffrey" a few too many times, and was trying to imitate it.

The other element that really didn't work for me was the voice-over and talking to the camera. It drew too much attention to itself, wasn't as funny as he seemed to think it was, and often didn't tell us anything we couldn't have learned from watching the characters interact.

Having said that, though, I think the film also has some excellent writing and strong performances, especially by Nathan Fillion. The best parts of the movie are when the brothers are trying to deal with Riley being gay. Jones is brilliant, when it comes to writing realistic - and very funny - dialog between characters he obviously relates to. This film, and his earlier film, "Stolen Summer", prove him to be a talented writer and director, and it turns out he's not half bad as an actor, either. I really hope he continues to make movies, and they get distribution.

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.

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!