Laura Colella in Breakfast With Curtis
Breakfast With Curtis
There I go again, making the movie sound like something it’s not. Curtis is hardly a public service announcement—rather, it’s the freshest American comedy to play Chicago so far this year. One scene in the film for which I’m especially grateful (and which the pleasant weather has made me think about the most) comes in the second half. Two of Curtis’s bohemian neighbors (played by Colella and Adele Parker) decide to celebrate their elderly landlady’s birthday by throwing a tea party in the backyard. They invite Curtis’s mother, but refuse to let the men of the house take part—the affair will be ladies only. Because he really wants a piece of birthday cake and because he doesn’t have much else to do, Colella’s boyfriend puts on a dress, adopts a cartoonish “ladylike” manner, and elbows his way into the festivities. Silly as it is, this scene registers as a major plot point, illustrating the growing camaraderie between the neighbors and heralding the victory of communal play over plot. That’s an unusual way to structure a movie, but as Breakfast With Curtis reminds us, there’s nothing wrong with being unusual.
