In and Out [In & Out] *** (1997, Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck) – Classic Movie Review 763

Director Frank Oz’s widely popular, gay-friendly 1997 movie is a good-natured but shaky comedy about an American mid-western small-town teacher (Kevin Kline), about to be married to his childhood sweetheart (Joan Cusack), who is outed as a gay man on national television by a former student (Matt Dillon) winning an Oscar at the Academy Awards.

This prompts the teacher to question his sexuality and causes lots of problems in the teacher’s private life and in the small town where he teaches.

Kline is funny, giving a witty and charming performance, and the film’s heart is in the right place. The fun is certainly here to be found, but it is patchy and the tone hesitant and inconsistent in Paul Rudnick’s screenplay. Unfortunately for the movie’s credibility, Tom Selleck and Kline look very uncomfortable kissing.

The fantasy story is based on a real-life Hollywood and American media event which followed Tom Hanks’s Oscar-winning speech after his Best Actor win for Philadelphia (1993), in which he mentioned and thanked a gay drama teacher. Hanks talks about this and other gay movie matters in the documentary feature The Celluloid Closet (1995).

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Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg and Jay Leno appear unbilled as themselves. The cast also includes Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, Bob Newhart, Shawn Hatosy and Selma Blair.

The Oscar statuette used in the film is Kline’s. He won it in 1988 for Best Supporting Actor in A Fish Called Wanda (1988).

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The suit Dillon wears to the Academy Awards is based on the one Brad Pitt wore at Oscars in 1996. The high school scenes were mostly shot at Pompton Lakes High School.

Rudnick also wrote Addams Family Values (1993), Jeffrey (1995), Isn’t She Great (2000) and The Stepford Wives (2004). He writes a monthly satirical film review column for Premiere magazine under the name ‘Libby Gelman-Waxner’.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 763 derekwinnert.com