Oh goodie, another "my old-country ethnic family doesn't understand me" comedy. Skin tone is just about the only difference among films in this repetitive genre, but Touch of Pink adds insult to injury, since it's a less sincere and cutesy carbon copy of Ang Lee's poignantly funny The Wedding Banquet, the one movie of its ilk that ever broke away from convention. Here Jimi Mistry (The Guru) stars as an uptight Pakistani immigrant trying to hide his homosexuality during a visit from his traditional, marriage-minded mother (the far too young Suleka Mathew). White lies snowball into predictable jokes and misunderstandings (Mistry's boyfriend pretends to be just a roommate, etc.), but a highly unlikely happy ending of enlightenment and lifestyle acceptance is, of course, inevitable. The Wedding Banquet turned stereotypes into fully fleshed-out characters, but this picture is little more than overly earnest hamming that quickly wears thin, as does the movie's quaint plot gimmick/crutch, in which Mistry gets a lot of vaguely bad advice from an imaginary friend--Cary Grant, played by Kyle MacLachlan in a passably witty smattering of mannerisms, voice inflections, and mixed-up quotes from the actor's most famous movies. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by writer-director Ian Iqbal Rashid, and costars Jimi Mistry and Kyle MacLachlan, an eight-minute “making-of” featurette, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a forgettable film.] (R. Blackwelder)
Touch of Pink
Columbia TriStar, 92 min., R, VHS: $50.99, DVD: $24.98, Jan. 11 Volume 20, Issue 1
Touch of Pink
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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