Film Review: Any Day Now

Garret Dillahunt & Alan Cumming, Any Day Now

With the recent flurry of gay rights victories—and even an inaugural nod by Obama—it can be tough to recall how incredibly homophobic the US was during the 1970s. While attitudes were becoming more liberal on many fronts, GLBT people were decades from being accepted by most of the population. Gay marriage was just about nonexistent, unless enacted in private. And 2 gay men adopting a child? Completely unheard of. Gay men were largely judged not by their character but by their sexual activity, which was condemned as “immoral.” Thus, bringing children into the picture was considered less desirable than letting them live with drug addicts or serial abusers.

Inspired by a true story, the new film Any Day Now relates the story of a gay couple who decides to fight for their right to adopt a child. This is not just any child, but an utterly charming young man with Down syndrome, who has been abandoned by his junkie mom in LA. Remarkably it was directed by a straight man (Travis Fine), who related to it via his own custody battle.

Alan Cumming plays Rudy Donatello, a musician and cabaret drag performer who’s as queeny as his partner, Paul (Garret Dillahunt), is straight-laced. Former NYer Rudy pulls no punches, and when he sees that his junkie neighbor is severely neglecting her teenage son, Marco, he steps in to take care of the boy as his own son. An attorney for the DA, Paul is initially less enthusiastic, worried about the potential legal challenges should they attempt to keep Marco permanently. The pair have no experience in caring for children, but their deep love for the boy informs their fight through the legal system.

Some of the most touching scenes in Any Day Now show the couple dropping Marco off at school for the first time, dressing him up for Halloween, and playing at the beach. It’s clear that the men’s love is allowing him to blossom from a withdrawn kid who once hid in the corner to a vibrant teenager who loves to disco dance. When they set him up in his own room, his only question is, “Can I stay forever?”

And yet… The court system and even Paul’s coworkers simply will not allow the evidence that the couple is providing a loving, happy home to suffice. The film shows the degree to which members of the system seem to delight in their prejudice against the couple, in no way grasping the role of love in this family.

Dillahunt, Cumming, and Isaac Leyva, Any Day Now

First-time actor Isaac Leyva does a stellar job of portraying young Marco, whose enjoyment of life’s simple pleasures put me frequently on the edge of tears. Alan Cumming plays what could have easily been a stereotypical role with heart and grace. His character is a fierce advocate, yet funny and tender—ironically the exact guy you’d choose for a dad, if you were allowed to pick. Paul nicely balances Rudy’s more overt theatricality with his stable, consistent, loving presence. Marco intuitively understands that they are the people who love him most in the world, and thus, recognizes where his home is. They form a band of outsiders who know all too well the hole left by being marginalized by society.

George Arthur Bloom’s script, written more than 30 years ago, feels so authentic to the times, and makes us truly grasp just how prejudiced and hate-filled that era could be, despite appearances to the contrary. Musical supervisor PJ Bloom provides an exquisite ’70s soundtrack. 

Any Day Now is one of the few gay films I’ve seen where the focus is on something other than 2 people of the same sex falling in love--as if that were unusual. Three decades ago, it was a novelty to watch a film that had gay central characters, so it didn't have to be all that complex. Maybe it’s a sign of progress than we can finally focus on other, more thought-provoking facets of gay life, such as justice in the child-adoption process. 

Currently more than a million gay people are parents, and 2-6 million more would like to be. Let’s hear it for New England, the West, and all of the 16 states in which these people are able to do so legally, without being tried as perverts. I'll spare you all the "love makes a family" bumper sticker cliches that would make for a cheese-ola ending. But see the film. Just see the film.