THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION (58)

Directed by: Nicholas Hytner

Starring: Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, John Pankow, Nigel Hawthorne, Alan Alda

The Pitch: A gay man and straight woman become flatmates and best of friends ; but she finds she'd like it to be more than that.

Theo Sez: Easy to see why this thoroughly urbane semi-comedy got such short shrift : "We're here, get used to it," chants a member of the Mothers Of Latino Lesbians, cheerleading for her daughter - but what's actually "here" is a pretty reductive (and unlikely) picture of the Gay Guy as a girl's favourite accessory, a best friend, midnight confidant and perky cheerer-upper all rolled into one (audiences of the future - looking at this, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING and I THINK I DO - may well wonder what all these chirpy 90s homosexuals were on exactly). Terminally PC in gender terms, it works a lot better when it goes beyond gender, as determinedly neutral as its title - drawing parallels between its gay hero and straight heroine (often cross-cutting between them) to find them both trying to get away from charismatic but controlling others (parents, partners), seeking only to be themselves amid a world of people trying to direct their lives : an effectively oblique plea for tolerance, based on personal space rather than sex (which, in either of its senses, seems to be no big deal here). It all somehow seems more sophisticated than you'd expect, closer to a Broadway comedy than the usual glorified TV - maybe because it strays from the usual middle-class milieu, set among the rich and /or bohemian, or because Pankow and (especially) Hawthorne hit unexpected notes with their characters, showing two sides where only one seems possible. Not the most convincing of romantic comedies - but on its own, rather abstract terms it works ; and the bittersweet ending is just right.