It’s a neat trick that a movie acutely aware of gay stereotypes ends up getting its best material by trading on precisely those.
Indie writer-director Casper Andreas’ same-sex romantic comedy “A Four Letter Word” spotlights Luke (co-writer Jesse Archer), a flamboyant, blond- streaked New York party boy.
Out clubbing one night, Luke is stopped in his prowling tracks by Stephen (Charlie David, Here TV’s “Dante’s Cove”), a straight talker who dismisses him as “a gay cliche.”
Even after the two subsequently get together, Luke remains in a self-analytical twist, thanks partly to incessant debate with his level-headed, moralizing co-worker, Zeke (Cory Grant).
The movie’s sharpest scenes, easily, are when Luke and Zeke are trading barbs at the sex shop where they work, half the time carrying on hilariously oblivious to the raunchy toys they’ve got in hand. When Stephen stops by the store to ask his new guy on a proper date, Luke sniffs, “Date is a four-letter word for interview.” No worries, says Stephen: “I won’t even bother to check your references.” Zeke, not missing a beat: “That would take years.”
Andreas’ storytelling sputters when Luke gets into some drama with Stephen, who’s got a compulsive lying habit. Uncharacteristically earnest messages follow about the importance of being honest with oneself and others in matters of the heart.
There’s also not much to subplots, featuring Virginia Bryan as an AA-attending, bi-confused bridezilla, and Steven M. Goldsmith and J.R. Rolley as newly cohabitating lovers with compatibility issues.
And while a fair amount of the acting is unpolished, it grows visibly more so every time a lip-lock, clinch or graphic sexual tumble looms — and there are plenty of them.
Better just to hang in for those moments when Andreas gets into party-boy mode himself, such as a support group scene in which Luke works fellow sex addicts into a lather with his Fire Island tales.
The film also serves up frothy glimpses of an all-drag bridal shower, an erotic spinning class and naked yoga.
Don’t forget to bring your wipe-down towel.
“A Four Letter Word”
Not rated. Parental advisory. 1 hour, 27 minutes. Directed by Casper Andreas; written by Andreas and Jesse Archer; starring Charlie David, Cory Grant, Jesse Archer, Steven M. Goldsmith. Opens today at Starz Filmcenter.
