The Birdcage is Mike Nichols and Elaine May’s sparkling American reworking of La Cage aux Folles, relocated to the colour, heat and theatrical excess of South Beach, Miami. Robin Williams plays Armand Goldman, the owner of a drag club, whose partner Albert, played by Nathan Lane, is its temperamental star attraction. Their carefully unconventional household is thrown into comic crisis when Armand’s son Val announces his engagement to Barbara, the daughter of ultra-conservative Senator Kevin Keeley. To placate her parents, Val asks Armand and Albert to disguise not only themselves but the whole shape of their family life.
Showing as FILM183's tribute to the late Gene Hackman, The Birdcage offers one of his most generous comic performances. As Senator Keeley, Hackman turns self-importance, panic and political rigidity into something both absurd and recognisably human, matching the brilliance of Williams, Lane and Dianne Wiest with impeccable timing. The film is farce at full speed—mistaken identities, social panic, elaborate concealments—but beneath its bright surfaces lies a warm defence of chosen family, loyalty and performance as survival. With Nichols’ elegant direction and May’s sharp dialogue, The Birdcage remains a crowd-pleasing comedy of manners and masquerade: affectionate, outrageous and unexpectedly moving.
