A Very Serious Person

Charles Busch – 2006 – USA

An extremely odd melodrama by a usually-not-very-serious-at-all person; famed performance artist and drag queen Charles Busch, who previously wrote and starred in the loving homages to 50s/60s camp Psycho Beach Party (2000) and Die Mommie Die! (2003).  Busch plays it straight this time, though; (well, not “straight” as in sexually, but dramatically).  He plays a Danish live-in nurse named Jan who has a profound impact on a cantankerous elderly woman (Polly Bergen) with a terminal illness he comes to live with, as well as her 13-year-old grandson Gil (P.J. Verhoest), who shows every indication known to man of being gay also; (he may not like boys yet, but he minces about in bright-colored clothes and is passionate about old Hollywood musicals).  Jan helps both troubled souls find peace and confidence, in the manner of a latter-day, less-magical, and male Marry Poppins.  The acting, direction and camerawork border on amateurish throughout, sometimes painfully so.  Busch would certainly have benefitted from letting someone else do the directing, as he did on his previous films.  However, there is so much honesty and earnestness from Busch in trying to tell this story that it’s hard to hold his failings as a director against him.  Busch and company are certainly doing this because they feel it strongly, not because there could have been any serious hope of box-office or major awards.  Yes, it’s inelegant, predictable and heavy-handed, but it’s sincere and strangely watchable.