A&E

Film review: ‘Any Day Now’

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Any Day Now opens Friday.

The Details

Any Day Now
Two and a half stars
Alan Cumming, Garret Dillahunt, Isaac Leyva
Directed by Travis Fine
Rated R, opens Friday
Beyond the Weekly
Official Movie Site
IMDb: Any Day Now
Rotten Tomatoes: Any Day Now

The plot of Any Day Now sounds like the dreariest sort of good-for-you indie drama: It’s a period piece (set in 1979-’80) about a gay couple (played by Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt) fighting for custody of a child with Down syndrome (Isaac Leyva). The movie lives down to expectations far too often, with a lot of courtroom grandstanding (the phrase “travesty of justice” is uttered with complete sincerity) and contrived sentiment (the poor kid’s circumstances are sometimes comically dire). The period setting lends the story higher dramatic stakes, given the more overt prejudice of the time, but it also allows director and co-writer Travis Fine to portray events in broader, more black-and-white terms. Cumming (despite his atrocious Queens accent) and Dillahunt do find some tender moments in their characters’ relationship, which ends up on an accelerated track thanks to their adoption efforts, but those moments mostly get lost in all the speechifying and overwrought emotion.

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