Thursday, July 31, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: Stay home

The Trip isn't worth making, even for queer film fans

By Mike Prevatt

During a recent "Will & Grace" episode, Will tells a newbie homo that even though almost all gay movies suck, he has to see them anyway, because they're all the community's got. This sense of obligation looped like a mantra during a recent screening of The Trip.

In his first filmmaking effort, writer-director Miles Swain tries harder than most of his queer auteur peers by giving his film a historical perspective. From 1973, when post-Stonewall activism was surviving in spite of hippie burnout, to 1984, when AIDS was a rising crisis President Reagan still hadn't bothered telling the American public about, Swain uses the backdrop of the gay rights movement to complement the story of two unlikely lovers: out and proud go-getter Tommy (Steve Braun) and late-to-the-party ex-conservative Alan (Larry Sullivan).

Alan's remaining skeleton, once he comes out, is an anti-gay book he never published. However, a close associate sneaks its anonymous publication through anyway, and of course Tommy has a cow when the true author is revealed. Fast forward to 1984, and Alan has one last chance to save face: Pick up an ailing Tommy from Mexico, and finally make the road trip they once dreamed of always taking.

Swain tries his damndest to create something unique, and on a couple of levels he does. However, he can't balance drama and comedy, usually because the transition from one mood to another is too abrupt to be believable. Nor does he make his players very likeable. As with most queer movies, the characters are too caught up in being gay--especially Tommy's swishy roommate, Michael, played by reliable homo-stereotype supporting actor Alexis Arquette. Sullivan renders the whiny Alan virtually unwatchable. You never know why Tommy--a bit too earnest himself--has fallen so in love with this hapless guy. He's unfunny, uncharming and unsexy, even when he tries to emulate Whitesnake video vixen Tawny Kitaen on the hood of a car.

The Trip has some promising elements in its foundation. It's the unraveling of this journey that becomes such a drag.