Review of The Birdcage

Movie #30 - The Birdcage

The Birdcage is a film about Albert and Armand, two gay men who own a drag club in South Beach, Florida. When Armand's son, Val, tells him that he's getting married to a senator's daughter, they rearrange their entire lives for the first meeting between the two families. Chaos ensues, Albert gets offended about 17 times, and it creates a non-stop hilarious story.

This movie is the reason I love Nathan Lane so much. Nathan Lane is the reason why I love theatre so much. His portrayal of Albert in The Birdcage is one of the most entertaining things I have ever watched on film. He's a comedic god...dess. Albert is the headliner at The Birdcage drag club that Armand owns. Albert and Armand have been together for over 20 years, and they collectively raised Val. When Albert is told by Val that he shouldn't be around when his fiancee's family arrives, he gets extremely dramatic and says that he is leaving to go to the nearby cemetery. This leads to one of my favorite lines in the entire film, "Oh, I see. So you're going with your toothbrush to a cemetery. How Egyptian." This movie is filled with some of the best lines ever.

Aside from Nathan Lane being hilarious in The Birdcage, so is Hank Azaria. Hank Azaria is one of my top 10 favorite comedians. He has done such a variety of different movies and television shows, that I'm pretty positive he is one of the most versatile comedians in the business. Hank plays Agador, which is Albert and Armand's maid....flamboyantly homosexual maid. He's just a riot. Agador has one of my other favorite lines from the film, "You're just afraid of my Guatamalaness. My natural heat." His accent, body movements, and natural talent for acting makes Agador easily my favorite character in the movie.

While watching the dinner scene, where the senator and his wife finally meet Armand and Albert, I thought it was funny to hear the senator say that gays are weakening our society. I thought it was genius on the part of the writers to have such a clueless character say this. Literally not even ten minutes later, he's dancing with "Mrs. Coleman," who is Albert in drag. To be carrying on an intellectual conversation and then dancing to cultured music with someone who you think is weakening society, that's priceless to me. Well done, writers. This gives this ridiculously dumb man the opportunity to learn from the error of his ways and accept Albert and Armand for the magnificent people that they are. The senator ends the movie sneaking out of the building dressed in drag - with the help of the people he so recently was saying are the society's weakness. Again, brilliant choice on the part of the directors and writers. Bravo.

I will leave you with a collection of scenes from one of the best movies ever made.

Overall, I give The Birdcage 5 out of 5 stars.