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Bruno

2000, Movie, PG-13, 108 mins

Bruno: Review

Shirley MacLaine made her directorial debut with this remake of 1997's MA VIE EN ROSE, a touching fable about fostering children's individuality rather than forcing them to conform to acceptable notions of behavior. Bruno (Alex D. Linz), a precocious only child at the mercy of his 350-pound single-mom Angela (Stacey Halprin) — a Divine-esque dressmaker — has inherited his mother's love of all garments frilly and flamboyant. But his passion for dresses doesn't go down well in the outside world, especially when it comes to the strict dress code of his Long Island parochial school. Bruno endures with aplomb his classmates' playground assaults and the reprimands of a confounded Mother Superior (Kathy Bates), but the stern disapproval of his policeman father (Gary Sinise) takes a toll on his sensitive temperament. A glimpse of slightly awkward back-story reveals the cause of his father’s bitterness — his childhood passion for opera was cruelly squelched by a domineering mother (MacLaine) who may have been repressing her own sexual identity. There's no way Bruno can be held accountable for the junk-food binges that inflated his mother from a respectable size 6 to an immeasurable dimension, now cloaked in garish home-made attire. But his cross-dressing nature allies him unwittingly with her, and leaves him forever disparaged in his father’s eyes. Bruno escapes his earthly woes in a heavenly fantasy world of doting angels in silk chiffon, who encourage his flare for fashion. A public scandal ensues when Bruno refuses to relinquish his effeminate garb as he rises to the top of the National Catholic School Spelling Championships. His divine inspiration draws enthusiastic national attention, but puts the last nail in the coffin of his strained relationship with his father and cold-fish grandmother. Most fables have a moral, and here Bruno’s unshakable courage leads to triumph. He wins the spelling bee dressed as a disco angel, gains back his father’s affection and — predictably — goodness prevails all around. Though this film has the unmistakable air of an Afterschool Special, the story will no doubt delight kids inclined to imagination and rebellion. leave a comment --Rachel Liebling