Holiday Heart (2000)

Holiday Heart (Ving Rhames) is gay drag queen who performs at a night club. He is talented, tough, compassionate, and a Christian. After his boyfriend dies he befriends down on her luck, drug addicted Wanda (Alfre Woodard) and her young daughter Niki (Jessika Reynolds). Heart offers them a stable home and becomes a much needed father figure for Niki. However, Wanda becomes addicted to drugs again and after a series of bad relationships, begins one with successful drug dealer Silas (Mykelti Williamson), who is homophobic and chauvinistic. Silas gives Heart money and insists that he stay out of their life. Heart agrees and prepares to visit Paris, France.

Both Silas and Wanda leave Niki alone. Silas has to go away on a "business" trip, while Wanda becomes a prostitute to feed her drug addiction. Heart takes care of Niki and raises her as his own daughter. Under Heart's guidance, Niki is baptized at the local Church and graduates from elementary school with honors. Soon after, Silas reenters their lives, and is thankful for what Heart has done. He has been getting a house in Florida ready for Wanda and Niki, but is still earning a living by selling drugs. Heart and Silas become a sort of "odd couple" as Niki begins junior high school, with Silas more willing to respect and tolerate Heart.

After bringing Niki along on one of his illicit sales, she runs away and bumps into her mother, who tries to prostitute her in order to get more drugs. As a result of the incident, Silas leaves Niki in the care of Heart. Niki begins to rebel as an angry teenager, but Heart lays down the law with some tough love. Just before Christmas, Wanda appears at the gay nightclub where Heart works and wants his help in getting clean and sober. The two walk to Heart's car, with a bike for Niki, only to be attacked by some of Wanda's former drug associates. As a former boxer, Heart manages to beat them up, but not before one of them runs over Wanda with their car. A few months later, Niki is home from Spring Break and visiting her mother's grave with Heart. Silas has returned and informs Niki and Heart that when they get back from a trip to Paris, he has a surprise waiting for them.

This made-for-TV film is a deeply moving and compelling story involving an unusual cast of characters. The film's desire not to sugarcoat things makes for some tough scenes and a less-than-happy ending. It features very good acting by Ving Rhames, Alfre Woodard, and Mykelti Williamson, and has uniformly favorable comments from viewers. Cheryl L. West wrote the teleplay adapted from her own stage play. Stephen James Taylor composed the music, and Robert Townsend directed.

Deadfall (1968)

Henry Clarke (Michael Caine) is a jewel thief and a recovering alcoholic hiding out in a sanitarium, trying to get close to his next mark, the wealthy Salinas (David Buck). One day he's visited by Fe Moreau (Giovanna Ralli), who entices him with an offer to work with her and her husband on their next heist to pull off a diamond robbery in the home of a rich aristocrat. After meeting Richard Moreau (Eric Portman), Clarke decides to work with them, partly because he's attracted to Richard. Then it's revealed that Richard is attracted to Clarke. He begins an affair with Fe when he realizes that Richard is an out and proud homosexual with Spanish lover Antonio (Carlos Pierre). What follows is a perverse game of sexuality and thievery, culminating in a startling revelation that rocks this romantic triangle, and which disastrously affects the climactic heist.

We have to figure out what the relationships are between Clarke and Salinas, as well as with Fe and Richard. There is a revelation that Richard is Fe's real father, and that they had a sexual relationship in the past. The film makes much of the perverse nature of their relationship, and something is so obviously wrong with it that the audience can only reach the most salacious conclusions concerning the couple. "Deadfall" refuses to clear up the central mystery of Richard's past Nazi activities, and much agonizing is made of it by Clarke and Fe. They even introduce the character Fillmore (Leonard Rossiter) who starts to clue us in on Richard, but then the filmmakers just drop the whole idea--and Fillmore. Maybe he was the victim, along with other major plot points, of severe post-production editing. And we're never given a clear understanding of why Richard takes his own daughter for a lover, as well as his wife.

In this Hitchockian suspense film everyone's motives are hidden, and by the time they're revealed, we have ceased to care about them. The film is 120 minutes long and could have benefited from some editing. There are too many scenes of characters looking mysteriously at each other, while we try to guess their feelings and what they're thinking. Basically, "Deadfall" is pretentious psychiatric nonsense wrapped around a heist movie. Caine's acting is not his best, but Portman shines here. Despite the pretentious dialogue he's given, he steals every scene he's in. John Barry composed the original music, somewhat derivative of his later 007 music--particularly "You Only Live Twice". Bryan Forbes wrote the screenplay derived from Desmond Cory's novel. Bryan Forbes also directed.