A little slow on the uptake

I watched a gay-themed flick recently, Almost Normal (2005). It's been described as Peggy Sue Got Married meets Back to the Future. The lead, Brad, is a dissatisfied middle-aged gay man, cozily tenured but single and bored, who crashes his car and finds himself back in high school in an inverted world where heterosexuality is deviant and homosexuality is the norm. Guys bond with guys, girls with girls. And they also make opposite sex friendships for the sake of procreation, so that each child has four parents. The film also has a happy ending, which I was in the mood for.

The gay-straight inversion trope is not original, but there was something really likeable about Brad. So many characters in gay flicks are queens, narcissists, victims --or all three-- but Brad was none of these. An "almost normal" gay guy. As he says, "Just because I don't fix cars doesn't mean I have to dress up like Judy Garland."

He was not a stunner, at least at first glance, but definitely attractive in an under the radar kind of way. And my attraction to him grew throughout the film. By the time he kissed his high-school wet-dream, the captain of the basketball team, I was really really getting into it. Gave me goose-bumps.

I thought, What's with this? And then it dawned on me, over an hour into the film.

Brad is The Boyo.

The physical resemblance suddenly jumped out and the character is a tenured teacher, slightly balding and in need of a haircut, with glasses and some facial hair, a non-sharp dresser who looks great in a pair of jeans, an easy laugh....Yikes. Though younger, there he was!

J. Andrew Keitch as adult Brad

Brad in high school

Funny. There he was, right in front of me. Duh. Nice movie.

___________________________