The Birdcage

The Birdcage is a 1996 movie (a re-make of La Cage aux Folles) which starred Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Christine Baranski, Calista Flockhart, Gene Hackman, Dan Futterman, and Hank Azaria. The script was by Elaine May, adapted from La Cage Aux Folles’ screenplay by Jean Poiret and Francis Veber, and the film was directed by Mike Nichols.

Related Topics:
1996 - Re-make - La Cage aux Folles - Robin Williams - Nathan Lane - Dianne Wiest - Christine Baranski - Calista Flockhart - Gene Hackman - Dan Futterman - Hank Azaria - Elaine May - Mike Nichols

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Tagline: Come as you are.

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Val Goldman and Barbara Keely are about to get married, so they have their families meet each other. Val's dad, Armand, is a gay nightclub owner in South Beach and lives with his lover, Albert. Barbara's father is a conservative Republican US Senator (who sees Bob Dole as being too liberal) up for re-election and the co-founder of the Coalition For Moral Order.

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The Keelys are driving down to South Beach, Florida to meet the Goldman family (after the founder of the Coalition for Moral Order dies in the bed of an "underage, black whore") and Val persuades his father (Williams) to pretent to be as stuff and conservative as the Keely family.

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Initially Williams refuses to lie about who he is, but in the end he agrees to the charade in order to make his son happy. Val gets his mother, Katherine Archer, to accompany him to meet Barbara's conservative parents. However, she gets stuck in traffic and Albert dresses up as a woman that appears to be an older Margret Thatcher. At dinner the guests talk about politics and Albert demonstrates his conservative politics, while Williams and his son panic over the dinner, the possibility that Katherine could appear at any moment and the fact that not all of the homoerotic images have been completely removed from the house.

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Eventually Katherine walks in and introduces herself as Val's mother, at which point Val takes off Albert's wig. The Keelys are shocked that Albert is really a man (and that they are really Jewish) and they are about to leave when the tabloid media shows up and plans to catch the conservative U.S. Senator in a public scandal.

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In the end, the Keelys come to understand why the ruse was concocted and Williams is able to sneak the Keely family past the media circus by having them all dress up in drag. It does end happily with the two of them marrying in a interfaith ceremony. Although it remains to be seen if the Keelys have changed their political views on gay rights.

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A special version censored for television broadcast uses special effects to change the thongs worn by various extras into baggier swimwear. The television version often includes some deleted and extended scenes.

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