An Alan A Day (Movie Review: Any Day Now)

At times, good movies with great performances get lost in the shuffle. "Any Day Now" was released during the crowded Holiday season and it didn't get any attention. This is a shame, because if for anything, this movie boasts of a great performance by Alan Cumming, an actor I have grown to admire more and more. I thought of him the other day because he was snubbed by the Tony nomination committee for title role in that Scottish play, and that's when I realized I had just seen this movie on Blu-Ray. I had a lot of problems with the film - the screenplay by Travis Fine and Arthur Fine seems all over the place, and some scenes were cringe-worthy. But that can easily be overlooked because of the fierce committed performance by Mr. Cumming. He plays Rudy Donatello, a gay man who tried to buck the system to try and get adoption rights for Marco, a mentally-challenged child abandoned by his mother. But this is 1979, and homophobia is still rampant everywhere, including the judicial systems. I would like to think we are way past that now in 2013, and indeed, signs are pointing that way - conservative Paul Ryan just stated the other day that even though he is against gay marriage, he is not against adoption by gay parents. But back to the movie, Mr. Donatello is an outspoken, loud gay man who claws and shouts his way, which helped and hurt him in his plight, with this partner, to get custody of the child. It's a marvel to watch Mr. Cumming's raw performance. You will not be able to take your eyes off him whenever he is on screen. Even though the film ends with such a preachy tone that made me want to hurl, your time will not be watsed just to see Mr. Cumming's performance.