Director: Travis Fine
Cast: Alan Cumming, Isaac Leyva, Garret Dillahunt, Frances Fisher, Gregg Henry.
98min US Drama
Inspired by true events that took place in the seventies but have increasing relevance now with contempo themes of gay adoption and civil rights, Travis Fine’s tale of a gay couple attempting to legally parent a mistreated Down’s Syndrome boy is somewhat schematic despite its admirable subject matter.
It stars Alan Cummings as Rudy Donatello, a single gay man whose unsocial hours in cabaret bring him into contact with his home-alone neighbour Marco, an appealing boy with Down’s Syndrome. Then one night during the show, Rudy takes a shine to punter, Paul (Garret Dillahunt), and after a brief dalliance, ends up servicing him in the car. The respectable divorced lawyer falls for his charms and before you can say ‘human rights lawyer’ the two have set up home on the auspices of providing stability for the mistreated Marco.
It has to be said this is very much Alan Cummings’s film. As a drag queen, his tour de force of simmering anger, full blown histrionics and vulnerable charm grabs the limelight whenever he’s in the frame. Playing against the much lesser-known but competent Garret Dillahunt, (who just gets to wear a truly ghastly wig) he simply takes over and the central theme of adoption is forced into second place. As Marco, Isaac Leyva is captivating in a subtle turn that could have offered more in the way of dramatic pull had the script left room for Marco and Paul to develop their characters. Sadly, they are completely submerged by Cumming’s star quality from start to finish. Fine’s handling of the establishment figures also portrays them as perpetual baddies to the point of caricature, as in Frances Fisher’s crusty old crimplene-clad Judge Meyerson and Paul’s boss, Lambert (Greg Henry): who turns into a ill-judged weirdo to cause him grief.
Obviously, Travis Fine was delighted to have Cummings attached to the project and shoe-horned in the rest of the cast who were happy to be part of a vehicle featuring his acting pipes in a star turn that ends up completely taking over the action. Where Any Day Now could have been a sensitive, multi-faceted court room drama about a decent gay couple engaged in a laudable custody battle, it just ends up being a rather predicable and strangely unfunny comedy focussing on Alan Cummings star turn. MT
ANY DAY NOW IS ON GENERAL RELEASE FROM 6TH SEPTEMBER 2013 AT SELECTED CINEMAS