When you are outed on the Oscars, a la Tom Hanks' teacher from the year he won for "Philadelphia", how are you going to react when you happen to be engaged....to a woman? That's the case with respectable Kevin Kline who is preparing to marry the high strung Joan Cusack. What happens the day that Matt Dillon, as a fictional actor, outs Kline on the Oscars, turns into a two hour horror movie for Kline but a fun filled laugh fest for the rest of us, ultimately because it's so silly. Everybody is all of a sudden looking at him different, and neurotic Cusack obviously thinks that she turned Kline gay. It's a "whatever floats your boat" for his mother Debbie Reynolds and father Wilford Brimley, and pretty much mom already knew. Their small town is not only abuzz with this gossip, but abuzz with the onslaught of the sleazy press, out to get a story....any story.

The scene-stealing Kline has some mighty tough competition here between over-the-top Cusack, gay icon Reynolds, brassy Brimley and hunky Tom Selleck, cast against type as a gay reporter who takes his own interest in Kline. It's obvious that in the early 1980's, a lot of gay men had the Tom Selleck look (most notably a few famous soap opera actors of the time),even though it was obvious that Selleck was as straight as a future Australian California governator. But for straight actors to take on gay characters and only to use the minimal amount of stereotypes is respectful, sometimes a bit too much in this p.c. world of ours, and even though the shock in this conservative town is great, everybody is just oh so nice about it.

Cusack delivers the best performance, and she became known for her hysterical take no prisoners performances as drag queen like characters who were basically gay men trapped in a woman's body. When she goes on her rant, "Is everybody in this town gay?", you'll have to watch how hard you laugh, because I was in pain for hours afterwards when I first saw it. Dillon, playing a serious actor not unlike himself, shows his likability and the easy going manner that made him popular, if not the humongous star he should have been over certain mega stars consumed with ego. Kline adds this onto the list of unforgettable characters he played in "Sophie's Choice", "The Big Easy", "A Fish Called Wanda" and "Soapdish", among others. This is a fun film that spoofed a real life incident, although it would have been more realistic for there to have been a darker side to the town's acceptance of Kline, as harsh as that reality is.

I had the misfortune to see IN & OUT at the cinema back on release. It's one of those movies with a dumb premise - a guy doesn't know whether he's gay or not - which seems to have been made up on the spot. Most of the film is merely an excuse for having Kevin Kline mugging as much as possible; I found his method of acting quite embarrassing, especially considering how good he'd been ten years before in A FISH CALLED WANDA. Only the likes of Tom Selleck raise a wry smile every now and then.

Howard Brackett (Kevin Kline) is a popular English teacher and coach in Greenleaf Indiana. His past student Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon) is a big star up for the academy awards. In his acceptance speech, he dedicates the award for his homosexual soldier performance to his gay teacher Howard. This brings all kinds of entertainment reporters including Peter Malloy (Tom Selleck) and shocks everybody in town including his fiancée Emily (Joan Cusack).

This has some funny moments. It's almost killing homosexuality with kindness playing up Howard's inoffensive effeminate traits. The massive news coverage is ridiculously over the top. Its heart is in the right place and so is most of the townfolks. The movie is filled with homosexual clichés and hasn't really aged well. It tries to take on homophobia with such a finger tip light touch. Kevin Kline walks a very fine line. In the end, this is an one joke movie that doesn't quite work anymore.