FLAWLESS(director/writer: Joel Schumacher; screenwriter: ; cinematographer: Declan Quinn; editor: Mark Stevens; music: Bruce Roberts; cast: Robert De Niro (Walt Koontz), Chris Bauer (Jacko), Skipp Sudduth (Tommy), Scott Allen Cooper (Ivana), Rory Cochrane (Pogo), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Tia), Barry Miller (Leonard Wilcox), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Rusty), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Cha-Cha), Nashom Benjamin (Amazing Grace), Vincent Laresca (Raymond Camacho), Karina Arroyave (Amber); Runtime: ; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Jane Rosenthal; MGM; 1999)
“There’s nothing flawless about this clunker.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A heavy-handed message comedy about tolerance for others. It’s written and directed by the underwhelming filmmaker Joel Schumacher(“The Phantom of the Opera”/”Phone Booth”/”Batman and Robin”). The schematic personal comedy is outdated and manipulative.

Robert De Niro stars as a homophobic security guard in NYC. One day he gets a stroke and the drag queen played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, his upstairs neighbor, nurses him back to health by giving him singing lessons as part of his rehab therapy and eventually also cures the man’s bias. There’s a subplot involving stolen mob money by the drag queen to pay for a sex-change operation.

There’s nothing flawless about this clunker.

REVIEWED ON 1/14/2016 GRADE: C

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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