Writer and director Andrew Fleming’s “Ideal Home” is like a queer version of “Two and a Half Men,” with the adult men being lovers instead of brothers, and the kid is a 10-year-old who says things that can’t be uttered on network television.
This diverting comedy, opening June 29 at the AMC in Cherry Hill, provides sufficient laughs throughout its 90 minutes as the characters learn what it means to be a family.
The sitcom plot has young Bill (Jack Gore) escaping to his grandfather Erasmus Brumble’s (Steve Coogan) lavish house in Santa Fe after the Albuquerque police arrest his father, Beau (Jake McDorman). Erasmus is the pretentious host of a basic-cable cooking show produced by his lover Paul (Paul Rudd), who thinly masks his contempt for Paul, saying, “He’s like the gay Butch Cassidy — except not butch.”
The out Fleming’s film is chock-full of vicious and deliciously bitchy one-liners. Some of the funniest moments consist of the couple’s bickering. They even fight when trying to declare a truce, so how can they possibly agree on how to raise a child?
“Ideal Home” shows how they can — and can’t. The men try to enroll Bill in school, as it’s the law and it will also get the kid out of the house for the day. However, they don’t actually know Bill’s legal name, so they can’t register him. Other parenting efforts have equally mixed results. When Bill is disappointed that he can’t visit his dad in jail, Paul offers to take Bill to the video arcade and for ice cream, while Erasmus suggests the Georgia O’Keefe Museum and a nice salad.
Paul and Erasmus also can’t get Bill to eat much of anything other than Taco Bell. If the film seems like an extended ad for the fast-food restaurant (and it is), it’s hard not to laugh at a drunk, raccoon-coated Erasmus stuffing his face with a Cheesy Gordita Crunch and Fiery Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme. But this particular scene also imparts a life lesson: Erasmus bonds with Bill, declaring his feelings for the child and making both of them more comfortable with the awkward situation that fate has dealt them.
As an adult, Erasmus is pretty much a big kid — petulant if he doesn’t get his way, finicky about what he eats and carefree when it comes to any responsibility. This is because Paul is the practical half of the couple. He gets Bill up and out for school with a lunch (from Taco Bell, of course) and picks him up in the afternoons. And yet, as reliable as Paul is with taking care of Bill, and given his concern in wanting to be a not-terrible parent, he is challenged by a foulmouthed child. Moreover, when Paul has one of his anxiety attacks, he can’t find his pills because Bill has found a creative use for them.
Fleming’s humor is a bit broad when it comes to some of the situations the characters encounter. When Melissa (Alison Pill), an agent from Child Protective Services, grills the couple over their gay-porn collection, which Bill inadvertently found, the scene goes on a little too long. Likewise, an exchange the men have with Bill’s teacher, Ms. Garcia (Lora Martinez-Cunningham) — she is scandalized by her pupil’s use of vulgar words, including “faggot,” in class – is over-milked. But these scenes do make points about the (in)appropriateness of gay parenting.
“Ideal Home” pivots on the expectation that Bill is going to love his two new dads just as much as they will come to love him. And when Beau reenters the picture, free from jail and wanting his son back, the story shifts gears to show how Paul and Erasmus must fight for custody of Bill as well as maintain the delicate balance of their own fragile relationship. While Erasmus takes Paul for granted, there is still a sense of caring that bonds these men, no matter how cruel they can be to one another.
Coogan and Rudd both give amusing performances that emphasize the odd-couple dynamic. Coogan may exaggerate Erasmus as a gay stereotype with a flamboyant sense of style and lofty airs about art, life, food and culture, but the actor’s commitment to his role is admirable. His character’s lack of humility and embarrassment is what makes him so funny.
Erasmus’ large ego is well-tempered by Paul’s big heart. Rudd generates many laughs at his frustrations — as when he must wait 45 minutes for Taco Bell to start its lunch menu — or his witty delivery in a response to another character’s sobriety: “Unlike you, I’m going to do something about it!”
“Ideal Home” offers a droll spin on queer family values. It may not be deep, but it is frequently quite funny.