Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

'Trick' has gay and lesbian camp classic potential

When Tori Spelling signed on to the production of "Trick," director Jim Fall must have thought he hit the jackpot. Here he was, a first-time director with a first-time screenwriter, trying to piece together a film to submit to the Sundance Festival. And who walks in but the most famous actress to grace both "Saved by the Bell" and "Beverly Hills 90210."

He probably thanked the gods for bringing her to him. Little did Fall know that this "blessing" would turn his entire group of actors into students of the Spelling school of drama.

Of course "Trick" has nothing to do with Beverly Hills High or Zack Morris. "Trick" is about two gay men trying desperately to find some place to be alone and have dirty, dirty sex. One of them, Gabe, is a repressed musical theater composer, and the other, Mark, is a go-go dancer for a homosexual strip club. Spelling plays Katherine R. Lamberg, an attention hungry ex-girlfriend of Gabe's who sings all his material for him (yes, Tori sings and dances.)

So sexy Mark picks up lonely Gabe on the subway ride home and the search ensues. The men travel from apartment to club to apartment to club, trying desperately to find a quiet spot (mainly away from Spelling's huge mouth) until - low and behold - they fall in love.

The obnoxious people they meet along the way 'flavor' the movie with their relationship wisdom. There's the horny heterosexual roommate, his breast-bearing sex analyst girlfriend, the geeky actor friends of Tori, the 'really mean' diner waitress, the very sweaty gay dancers - and to top it all off, the drag queen, Miss Coco Peru - an honest to god dead ringer for Tori Spelling.

Just in case any gay stereotypes were missed, Fall throws in an older flamboyantly homosexual songwriter, Perry, who performs the show stopping number "Do you like my C**K?"

It was as if Fall tried to hide Tori's horrible acting skills by finding 10 other over-actors to numb the audience to her. Unfortunately for them, from the first "Oh my god, babe," out of her mouth, it was clear that no one else could quite reach her level of expertise. They all tried very hard for sure, but essentially they just turned the movie into an episode of MTV's "Undressed."

On Jim Fall's personal "Trick" Web site, he announces that the movie has won the Audience Favorite Award at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and boasts that its "opening week [was] bigger than any other independent gay-themed movie!" But when the accolades are that specific, it suggests that perhaps the audience for the movie is a little too limited.

In any case, whether intentionally or not, Jim Fall has apparently created a camp classic for the gay and lesbian market. He may have wanted "Trick" to be a semi-serious exploration of homosexual love in the city. But on the other hand, if his goal all along was to create a camp classic, choosing the untalented daughter of the creator of "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" may just have been the perfect choice.