Flawless (1999)

The drag queen next door A homophobic former policeman (Robert DeNiro) has a stroke. He's not well off financially and is pretty lonely, and has been waging a war against drag queen neighbours in the seedy tenement building where he lives.

The stroke leaves him needing speech therapy, and surprise surprise, the only way he can afford it is to take lessons from one of the drag queens, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. The initial tension dissolves as they become better acquainted and realise that their circumstances (loneliness, poverty etc) are pretty similar.


The drag queen on stage The first time I saw the film, I didn't find any of this convincing, but on second viewing I realised I had misjudged it: I found the drag queen's character exceedingly well developed. De Niro's portrayal of a stroke victim didn't remind me much of any of such sufferers I've known, however.


At the party There is a party for the ex-cop about 75 minutes into the film, and that might have been the happily-ever-after ending, but in fact there was more to come and the ending is well contrived.

The drag queen has numerous drag queen friends and acquaintances in the film.

HF August 2002


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