In retrospect I am not entirely sure how I feel about Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno. Parts of it were funny, parts of it were incredibly disturbing, but while it certainly shined an unflattering light on homophobia, I am not sure it was a positive for the GLBT community either.

Cohen, who is the man behind Borat, brings his Austrian Gay character Brüno Gehard to the big screen in mockumentary form. After getting fired from his Austrian fashion show he heads to America to become the “biggest Austrian celebrity since Hitler.” What follows is his journey around America attempting to discover fame.

Some parts are howling-funny while other parts are more awkward laughter, like “I can’t believe this is happening.” One such example is when he is interviewing parents to cast their children in photo shoots. Their willingness to agree to anything, no matter how unsafe, reckless, or offensive speaks a lot about Hollywood. Those poor kids. Two anti-gay pastors involved with converting people into heterosexuals come across as foolish, which is not a negative. The climactic scenes involving a mixed martial arts event in Arkansas is really scary, I actually muttered under my breath “how did they not get killed?” While it certainly doesn’t look good from the reactions of the testosterone fuelled homophobes in the audience, I don’t think it really will change the life of anyone in the theatre.

Other parts - a giant penis, a swinger’s party, simulating oral sex on a ghost - played more for shock value than anything else. The audience in the theatre, a mix of gay and straight, men and women, seemed uncomfortable at times.

How someone will leave the theatre will depend on their point of view going in. Those expecting satire and knowing that Cohen is straight and it is a fictional character, will probably leave in awe of the state of people in the film. Those that dislike gays in the first place (though what they are doing at that movie in the first place makes no sense) may have more ammo for what “gays are like.” Certainly there are those that may be in some way represented by Brüno but not many. We live in a world now where people seem to take offence to everything - jive talking Transformers, goofy candid photos - without taking into context that sometimes things are meant to be entertaining but not politically correct.

Brüno certainly has its moments but it isn’t going to change the world, and isn’t as good or clever as Borat.

www.thebrunomovie.com