KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

secondtake Flawless (1999)It's too easy to say the Flawless isn't. It's also too easy to say what is really irksome and artificial about this plot and its characters--a cliché of a broken down older cop and a apartment building shared with drug dealers, drug users, and most colorfully, a whole slew of cross dressers and transvestites. We know they are not going to get, even though we don't know why the cop lives there when he is so clearly out of place. And we know that the movie is about a reconciliation between these types--and stereotypes.Furthermore, the picture of these kinds of people, including the key transvestite played with a certain amount of conviction by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is one drawn by an outsider. Director Joel Schumacher is openly gay, but he is also open about not being part of the transgender world, and not understanding it at first.So for this reason, at least, the playing of clichés is too brazen and thin to be persuasive. I can't imagine people in the tranny community really being convinced, though they might still enjoy the scenes (being rare enough in a mainstream movie). But you do wonder why Hoffman was tapped for the role when there are so many really outrageously good, and excessive, actors equally and more capable in those shoes. Schumacher's explanation that he wanted someone who could play both sides of being a man seems thin. I'm guessing it was about getting two stars head to head. The writing, also by Schumacher, is painfully clumsy at time--people shouting stupidly out their windows, confrontations between drug dealers and other falling into bad clichés, on and on. And in all, it's kind of a rotten movie.Except...except for one redeeming quality that is quite beautiful, and this comes (tellingly) directly from the director's experience. And that is the way two people can be made to understand and even love each other (in their own hamstrung ways) as very different kinds of men. And how someone with a stroke can be made to sing, to come alive, even a little, more than they thought they could. Skip all the drug nonsense, all the blatant attention getting garbage that fills up most of the movie to the point of being either laughable or offensive, and enjoy what does work.

richard-1967 Robert DiNiro is excellent and Phillip Seymour Hoffman totally brilliant in this film. But the best thing about this movie is its lesson of tolerance and acceptance.There's a wide gulf between a disillusioned, narrow-minded former security guard with a disabling stroke and a flaming drag queen whose loneliness lurks just below the surface.One common thread is that it takes exceptional acting to remain convincingly in character and both DiNiro and Hoffman pull it off with ease. PSH is particularly compelling. Someday he may wind up with as many Oscar nominations as Merryl.Another common thread is that -- well, no spoilers here, but it's no surprise that these two lonely people have far more in common than the mutual antipathy with which they begin the movie.Ulimately, this well-constructed movie is about learning tolerance -- not just between two individuals but among their "crowds," as events and life take precedence over stereotyped bigotry.This movie is a warm winner - 8 1/2 stars.

loudprincess While the film itself certainly has it's shortcomings, Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance embodies the film's title. While a lesser actor would have taken the role of Rusty as a caricature of gay and transgender stereotypes, Hoffman performs the role with deep sensitivity and respect for the trials of someone living a misunderstood life. Robert De Niro is also believable as a gritty police officer recovering from a stroke.The most powerful thing about this film is that it doesn't gloss over stereotypes, but still makes the viewer feel compassion for both characters. Deniro's cop goes through a huge transformation from homophobe to someone who learns the value of people whom he may not fully understand, and does so with a delicate, nuanced touch.I love this movie, even if only for the scene with Hoffman talking to the Log Cabin Republican about their own bias against more flamboyant gays. It's powerful and true, and one of the only films to address the issue, even if only briefly.

bkoganbing Flawless with its amazing chemistry and pluperfect performances by Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a very funny film which flows effortlessly into some dramatic moments. But very few want to talk about the social implications of it.Philip Seymour Hoffman is a female impersonator who lives in the same apartment building as Robert DeNiro, a retired policeman who works as a security guard. During a robbery of a drug dealer, one of Hoffman's fellow drag performers is killed and DeNiro suffers a stroke trying to prevent the crime. The drug dealers can't exactly go to the police with their story, but they have other methods of dealing with transgressors.DeNiro and Hoffman have nothing in common at all and usually confine any conversations they have with some usual shouted epithets. But DeNiro's doctor advises singing lessons as a form of speech therapy and he goes to Hoffman. They develop an unusual friendship.More unusual because it turns out that Hoffman has the stolen loot. And why Hoffman is keeping it is a matter of life and quality thereof.Hoffman is not dressing in drag for effect or to make money as a performer. Hoffman's real drag is the body parts God gave him because they don't match what's inside. Hoffman is a transgendered soul and the cost of a sex change operation is more than he could earn in a few lifetimes.Here in America our insurance companies amazingly regard a sex change as cosmetic surgery. Scary idea, but true. Recently I had some talks with a transgender person from the United Kingdom. There the debate is whether their socialized medicine system should be paying for the sex change. Either way it is frightening situation that Hoffman is put in with all that cash suddenly in his possession and the chance of matching heart and soul to body can be realized.Especially after just winning an Oscar for Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't worried about getting cast in gay roles. From the lovestruck Scotty G in Boogie Nights, to Flawless, and now to Capote, Hoffman's making one great career for himself going gay. But all three of those parts show an astonishing range and a courageous player willing to accept and master challenging roles.Of course Robert DeNiro is great, he's never anything else. And he's back in the world of lower Manhattan that he knows so well. His character turns out to be a person of great character and more than just physical strength.Flawless is a film that will make you laugh and cry, but even more important will make you think.