STONEWALL – The Review

Well, we’re past the Summer blockbusters and heading right into the serious, somber cinema season, that time when the studios dream of top ten lists and Oscar gold. What better way to make those award fantasies come true than to hop in the movie “way-back” time machine and witness a most historic birth. But we’re not looking back on the birth of a person, rather the birth of a movement, a concentrated effort to effect change for a minority. Almost a year ago, we saw the civil rights movement take root in the acclaimed SELMA. And in a few weeks, we’ll see the story of  how the women’s equality movement began in SUFFRAGETTE. So, now the movies offer up a look at a true flash point in the struggle of the LGBT community for justice, specifically the 1969 riot at the NYC nightspot called STONEWALL. So, what director is tackling this controversial subject matter. Someone known for daring independent flicks? A firebrand just out of film school? Would you believe the director is a man behind some of the biggest action blockbusters? This tale arrives in cinemas courtesy of Mr. Roland Emmerich. Or should I say Mr. Roland (INDEPENDENCE DAY) Emmerich. Yes, he did make the Shakespeare-era bit of conjecture ANONYMOUS, but this movie really strays from the big epics. Well. lets’ flip the dial back to those “good ol’/bad ol’ days” and discover that peace and love weren’t so easily available to everybody.

The story begins with some stark, black and white images from the film’s later riot sequence accompanied by the layered period factoids concerning the treatment (really mistreatment) of homosexuals (barred from jobs, electro-shock therapy as a “cure”). Then we’re on Christopher Street in the big apple in the Spring of 1969 as eighteen year-old Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine) arrives fresh off the bus from the midwest. He’s ready to start college classes soon at Columbia, but he needs a place to live. A group of gay street hustlers embrace him, especially the outspoken Ray (Jonny Beauchamp). Through flashbacks we learn that Danny was kicked out of his home by his stern, stoic father after he had been spotted having sex with his football teammate (and dad’s the coach!). Luckily Danny is still in contact with his adoring mother and spitfire kid sister Phoebe (Joey King). Later he’s taken by Ray and his pals to the seedy mob-run bar, the Stonewall Inn, where he attracts the attention of the co-owner Ed Murphy (Ron Perlman) and gay activist Trevor (Jonathon Ryhs Meyers). As Danny is introduced to the world of hooking along with constant police harassment and brutality, he begins a romance with Trevor. Meanwhile ambitious Police Deputy Pine decides to crack down on the Stonewall in order to root out corrupt cops. This comes to a boil on a hot Summer night as the bar’s patrons finally decide that they’ve had enough and become the catalyst for a world-wide fight against oppression and prejudice.

The younger members of the cast strain and sweat trying to push this leaden script, much to their credit. Irvine tries to breathe life into Danny, the bright-eyed audience surrogate. He mainly registers heartbreak and horror as the character becomes a “Perils of Pauline” serial hero escaping doom every other scene as the villains lustily pursue him. His quick adaptation to the big evil city never really rings true, but Irvine truly gives it his all. But his energy level can’t match Beauchamp’s Ray who seems to have been just shot out of a cannon into a pool of coffee (not decaf). Sporting heavy eyeliner, Ray is almost always in a state of panic or disgust as he tosses his feather boa like a bullwhip. King is shaping up to be quite a compelling young actress even as she works to make her stilted, way too adult dialogue believable. As for the screen vets, Rhys Meyers smolders on-screen as the very smooth and slick rabble-rouser and is quite a believable seducer. Perlman is all swarthy menace as the devious and deadly Murphy, seeming like one of Tony Soprano’s most brutal lieutenants. And Craven is convincing as the guy who appears to be the only good cop trying to rescue the kids from the cesspool of the city streets.

Emmerich directs with such passion that the personal intimate stories get steamrolled by the film’s strident message. Yes, yes things weren’t that groovy then, we get it. He’s trying for a gay rights version of SELMA with touches of DO THE RIGHT THING, but the whole story comes off as more clumsy than compelling. Mixing fictional characters with real people and events has worked in films from SAN FRANCISCO to RAGTIME to TITANIC, which made history truly come alive for modern audiences. But when it doesn’t work, the results can be deadly, and the impact of the event can be dulled. Danny’s story never really grabs us, particularly as it plays into many clichés. He’s first approached by a leering, overly made-up queen who seems to have been flown in from a pre-code early “talkie”. Then, much later in the flick, Danny is once again enduring the advances of a much older, husky “sugar daddy” who’s almost a clone of DUNE’s Baron Harkonnen. And his flashback scenes seem to play like Rockwell golden-lit Smallville outtakes from the first Richard Donner Superman flick. But the film is truly slowed down to a halt by the antics of Ray and his group of campy hustlers. On a scale of 1 to 10, their energy and volume always seem to be well past 20. They’re meant to be endearing but are mostly irritating and irresponsible. At one point “Queen Kong” hurls a brick through a window in order to scoop up a flower hat that struck his fancy. Because they’re mistreated, he should take anything he wants? What a rascal! A scamp! For the final scene we get a glimpse of the first parade for gay liberation that spots some truly unconvincing “keyed-in” period backdrops. This after a riot sequence that feels flat and squeezed in to fit onto a soundstaged Christopher street corner. There’s a good lesson to be learned from this cultural event, but good intentions don’t always inspire good movies. And the incredibly stilted, heavy-handed, maudlin STONEWALL proves it.

1.5 Out of 5

STONEWALL opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli theatre