Bros is broadcast as first big-studio gay film, makes the same mistakes as the other LGBT films

Seen as an enjoyable “When Harry Met Salil” kind of plunge-straight-into-gay love story director Nicholas Stoller’s much-talked-about film Bros, works just fine. The problem is, this gay love story makes the same fatal mistakes as other LGBT films: it presumes gay men are by nature not monogamous, and more fatally the protagonist comes across as a whiney anti-homophobic. In fact, the protagonist makes so much noise about homophobics and homophobia that the film itself begins to look homophobic.

Bobby Leicher (Billy Eichner) certainly makes heavy weather of homophobia. He is smart, savvy, self-aware, charismatic and Jewish. Rather than project these qualities outwards and make our world a better place for marginalized communities, Bobby just whines and complains and fights, until the person in front of him losses all patience and retaliates nastily.

There is this one particularly annoying episode in the smartly but unevenly written plot where Bobby keeps lecturing his new boyfriend (Luke Macfarlane)’s schoolteacher mother(Amanda Bearse, briefly brilliant) on why Grade 2 children need to know about sex and homosexuality.

Now, here is the thing: Bobby is supposed to be annoying in his self-righteous sardonicism. But he is not only annoying to the people around him, he is also annoying to us, the audience. To watch him take off on thorny subjects is an ordeal. But Bobby cannot be silenced. Someone should have served him a gag order for his own good.

On the plus side– and there are many reasons why Bros is a bright work in repos – the film never gets sanctimonious. Nor does it sense of humour. There is this whole ongoing subplot about an LGBT museum being constructed in Manhattan where all the closeted figures from history are to be outed. The museum’s growth comes to a grinding halt when Abraham Lincoln’s sexuality is questioned. Another recent film the brilliant She Said dragged another American president Trump into the MeToo net. This level of candour on screen makes it feasible for filmmakers to open up wounds that never heal.

But sorry, am I sounding as whiny as our hero? That is not the intention. In more than a majority of the storytelling, I quite enjoyed the give-and-take of quips. It seems gay people in mainstream cinema cannot talk without sounding like forwarded WhatsApp messages. And that’s fine. Who doesn’t enjoy a film with a brainy witty quipping hero who responds to every question with an exclamatory question?

This is a happy gay film. Nobody is dying. Not from grief disease or disenchantment. Yes, there are hurdles like broken hearts. But nothing that can’t be mended. Most of all, there is Billy Eichner, a gay actor with wit and wherewithal. He sweeps some of the film’s absurd concessions to mainstreaming under the carpet. You may not agree with the premise that monogamy is for heterosexuals. But this won’t affect your joy in watching gay people who are not beaten up in dark alleys.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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