Any Day Now Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Any Day Now Blu-ray Movie Review

We Are Family.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 26, 2013

What is the Supreme Court going to say about same sex marriage? It’s one of the biggest questions facing not just typical Court watchers, but indeed the entire United States of America, as the usually closely divided “Supremes” have to wrestle with a number of thorny issues, not the least of which is the seemingly overwhelming momentum of public opinion that the time for marriage equality has come. Even the most stalwart conservatives are on record as stating the same sex marriage is a civil rights issue first and foremost, and there have been some rather stunning “conversions” over the past few months from some unlikely right leaning politicos who have either had personal reasons or perhaps simply have their figurative fingers to the wind and are attempting to get out in front of what seems to be an inexorable movement at this point, no matter what the Supreme Court ultimately decides in the two cases it has recently finished hearing. One of the arguments against same sex marriage is the oft-repeated adage that kids do best with a mother and a father, a so-called “statistic” that has been increasingly called into question, with all sorts of professional organizations (whom critics call unabashedly biased) saying there’s no proof that having two parents of the same sex is in any way detrimental to the nurturing and ultimate success of a child. How times have changed—or have they?. Any Day Now is a moving drama, allegedly based on a real life incident, of two gay men in the 1970s who find themselves rather unexpectedly raising a developmentally disabled boy but whose best intentions are indeed their entrée into a certain kind of bureaucratic hell when the powers that be discover that the men are gay and decide that no child should be raised in such circumstances.

How you feel about being unabashedly manipulated will probably play fairly strongly into how you feel about Any Day Now, perhaps even more than how you feel about the underlying issues of gay adoption (and/or marriage). For Any Day Now is an undeniably soap operatic treatment of a complex issue, one which reduces characters to symbols (for both good and evil, of course), but which still manages to wrest a fair amount of emotion out of the situation, albeit often from out and out artifice. Any Day Now lurches a bit uneasily from melodrama to something approaching a bus and truck version of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, but somewhere in between these two extremes are some heartfelt moments to which only the most cynical will be completely immune.

Any Day Now wastes little time in setting its plot mechanics in motion, wasting even less time in developing character. Drag queen Rudy Donatello (Alan Cumming) works at a West Hollywood dive in 1979 lip synching disco hits with a similarly clad group of backup singers and immediately fixates on uptight, perhaps closeted, customer Paul Fleiger (Garret Dillahunt) who stares at Rudy from the audience. When Paul comes backstage after the show to meet Rudy, the two quickly retire to a little assignation in Paul’s car which has both a “happy ending” as well as a perilous coda when a vicious cop shows up and threatens to shoot both of the guys. Paul reveals he’s a District Attorney and suggests the policeman might be facing a murder one rap were that to happen. Paul drives Rudy to Rudy’s shabby apartment and leaves Rudy with his card, though Rudy wonders if that’s simply Paul being kind. Rudy’s next door neighbor seems to be a “working girl” who likes her music up loud—as in earsplitting. When the music is still playing next morning, Rudy bursts into her apartment and is shocked to find the woman’s abandoned child huddled in the corner. We’ve previously seen this kid in the film’s opening scene from the back, but now realize that the boy is actually a Down Syndrome sufferer and is barely able to speak.

Acting almost on impulse, Rudy takes the boy, whose name is Marco (Isaac Leyva) and attempts to contact Paul for advice. When Paul won’t accept Rudy’s call, Rudy of course just storms into Paul’s office, making a scene and begging Paul for advice on what to do. Paul states the kid should be handled over to Family Services, which is pretty much what happens as soon as Rudy returns to his apartment house and finds out that Marco’s mother Marianna (Jamie Anne Allman) hasn’t just not returned home, but has in fact been arrested. When Marco simply ups and walks away from the temporary foster home and shows up back at the apartment building, that then leads Rudy with Paul's help to approach Marianna in prison to get her to sign away guardianship of Marco (albeit temporarily) to Rudy so that he can rescue the boy from foster care altogether. Marianna reluctantly agrees to do this, at which point Rudy and Paul decide to “play house”, since Paul is far more financially capable of providing for the boy. Since they know that prevailing attitudes won't allow two gay men to raise Marco, they decide they'll pretend to be cousins.

Needless to say their subterfuge is soon uncovered by a suspicious boss of Paul's, which then sends the film catapulting into its main courtroom sequences where the lunacy of the situation is laid out with a lack of subtlety but no dearth of emotion. Despite the fact that Marianna is a drug addled child abandoner, according to the “logic” of the times, she makes a more appropriate custodial parent to Marco than the obviously (perhaps too obviously) caring Rudy and Paul. Part of the problem with Any Day Now is that it paints these characters in such broad strokes that there’s little nuance and we get the suddenly perfectly domestic pair of gay men pitted against an unyielding court system (and some hangers on, like Paul's boss) where all of the forces lined up against Rudy and Paul might as well be wearing black hats and twirling wax mustaches. A few shades of gray might not have given the film any more emotional gravitas, something it undeniably has in spades, but it might have upped the realism angle significantly. The closest the film comes in that regard is a well meaning but by the book judge played by Frances Fisher, who nonethless upbraids the couple for their "openly homosexual lifestyle".

The film is probably best seen as a well meaning, if occasionally screed like, call to arms for the perhaps obvious idea that a loving home environment is more important than sexual preference. Any Day Now also serves to show Alan Cumming’s considerable acting (and singing) chops off to a perhaps greater degree than they’ve ever really been exploited before. Cumming is an unusual presence, one whose distinctive persona made him a perfect Master of Ceremonies in the vaunted revival of Cabaret but which has sometimes proven problematic to typical “leading man” roles for the actor. Now there’s little arguing that Rudy is nothing like a typical leading man, but the role really provides a showcase for Cumming, who is able to deliver snark without malice and also a surprising amount of heartfelt bombast when necessary. If Cumming’s all encompassing presence tends to push all the other actors off into the wings, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Any Day Now Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Any Day Now is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This digitally shot feature was done on a shoestring budget and frequently shows it. The film has been perhaps unwisely color graded to a sickly yellow tint at least some of the time, something that gives even fleshtones a really odd hue during those moments. Contrast is not quite as strong as might be hoped, making the dim interior scenes murky and ill defined quite a bit of the time. When the film ventures out of doors or we're granted more naturally lit daytime moments, things improve dramatically and fine object detail rises to commendable levels, especially in close-ups (as the screenshot of Leyva clearly reveals). But director Travis Fine was obviously going for a verité look here, and his no doubt intentionally lo-fi approach means that high definition can only do so much.

Any Day Now Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Any Day Now features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 that really springs into action in the film's musical sequences, but which tends to leave surround activity to relatively subtle effects like hall ambience or the sound of muffled music coming from a neighboring apartment throughout the vast bulk of the film. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and fidelity is excellent. This is a subtle track that is decently immersive without ever being overly showy about it.

Any Day Now Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Any Day Now (1080p; 17:07) features some interesting interviews with Travis Fine along with the requisite clips from the film.


• Getting to Know Isaac (720p; 2:18) is a very sweet interview with Isaac Leyva.


• Isaac's Audition (480i; 2:00)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:24)

Any Day Now Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Any Day Now doesn't just tug at the heartstrings, it virtually rips your heart from your chest and shows it to you, still beating, a la that old Indiana Jones film. If you don't mind that kind of outright manipulation, there's quite a bit here to enjoy. While no one and nothing in the film can be accused of any real subtlety, there's a visceral intensity to the drama, especially as expressed through Alan Cumming's wonderfully weird performance. This Blu-ray offers very good video and audio and has some decent supplements. Recommended.