Film

Torch Song Trilogy (1988)

Director: Paul Bogart

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

It's New York in 1971. Virginia Hamm wants a child, but the odds are stacked against her. She's single, given to emotionally masochistic relationships with immature men...and she's a Jewish professional female impersonator named Arnold Beckoff. But forget the drag, this is not another La Cage aux Folles; it's a straightforward, very funny love story which glows with fulfilment and promise. Beckoff (Fierstein) picks up Ed, a bi who's not happy about being so (Kerwin), and they embark on some sort of affair. It falls apart. Alan (Broderick), the big romantic interest, pursues the reluctant and disbelieving dragster, they set up home, they fight, they come through it and get ready to adopt. The second half of the movie - featuring a manic performance from Bancroft as Arnold's Ma, the epitome of Jewish Mommishness - is a rollercoaster of politics, parenthood (Arnold's and Ma's), death, independence, reconciliation, and more romance. It's a solid, old-fashioned, soppy movie - Arnold has been described as 'Doris Day with a dick' - and a great retro-romance.

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