Thoughts on The Object of My Affection

 

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"Well, you don't find anyone new until you're brave enough to give up the old."
"I don't really wanna find anyone new."

Nina (Jennifer Aniston), George (Paul Rudd) and The Object of My Affection walked so Will & Grace could run. An intimate but platonic and near-dangerously codependent friendship between a straight woman and a gay man, and his existence isn't tragic? Vive la révolution! "The new 1998 model of gay men rolling out of the Hollywood factory is genuinely watershed -- so psychologically intact that even straight women are buttonholing them to be fathers for their babies," Cliff Rothman wrote in The Los Angeles Times. In that same article, Larry Kramer was described as refusing to be proud of still-diluted images of gay men. "I'm still waiting for the major gay love story in which two big male stars like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon have a really hot love affair," Kramer said. "And I'm here to tell you that that movie is going to make a fortune."

Object may not have the future ex-Mr. Jennifer Aniston getting it on with Will Hunting. It does have Rudd losing a boyfriend (Tim Daly as Joley) to a younger man, then taking the unrequited lover (Amo Gulinello as Paul) of a significantly older man (Nigel Hawthorne as Rodney). The new gay relationship comes long after Nina's gotten emotionally involved with George. It started as she segued out of her relationship with domineering but ultimately decent Vince (John Pankow). As much as she wants, though, Nina can't make George not be gay. Object, adapted from Stephen McCauley's novel by Wendy Wasserstein (herself no stranger to complicated relationships with gay men), has Nina be the last one to admit her impossible want.

*Rodney and Nina are alone in her kitchen while George and Paul have gone on a walk*

"I have opinions about Shakespeare. About other people's lifestyles, I have absolutely no opinions whatsoever. And I don't think one should be too hard on oneself if ... the object of one's affection ... returns the favor with rather less enthusiasm than one might've hoped. But, a small observation, if I may, from someone old enough to be your grandfather ... Have you noticed that you're the only woman coming to your Thanksgiving dinner? ... Now, don't get defensive. Have you also noticed that you're the only practicing heterosexual coming to your Thanksgiving dinner? ... I'm serious. What happens when all the men at your Thanksgiving dinner find other men? Who's at your table then? Don't fix your life so that you're left alone right when you come to the middle of it."

Wasserstein was another screenwriter who took liberties. According to Entertainment Weekly, she changed Object's perspective from George's to Nina's and added Rodney, Constance (Allison Janney) and Sidney (Alan Alda). The latter two are no great achievement, but Alan tried his damndest ("Honey, I just signed Castro.") and Allison has that great scene where Constance tries getting Nina to accept reality. Wasserstein also wrote Object's epilogue. Nina and Louis (Kevin Carroll), the cop who advised her about being willing to move on, are in a long-term relationship. George and Paul's has gone the distance. Nina and Vince are successful at co-parenting. Destiny's been fulfilled with Molly (Sarah Hyland) having her "Uncle George."

"There's a bizarre, pre-feminist masochism to these new women's pictures: They're saying that the heroines have been so beaten down by their miniscule romantic options that they have given up even trying to find sex and love in the same place."

-- Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

A lot's changed since 1998. Object, directed by Nicholas Hytner, has a running gag involving Frank (Steve Zahn), George's brother. Prone to getting engaged, Frank finally marries a woman near the movie's close. I actually got taken out of Object for a moment, thinking about how it would be a long time before George and Paul could do the same. On the lighter side of then vs. now, we have Aniston furthering her film career at a time when no one knew if she would only be famous for being on TV. Rudd's long-term success wasn't guaranteed either. That's actually part of the fun in watching Jennifer, Paul, Allison and Alan together, when you counsider that all of them have gone the distance in show business. Not only that, but the men both have probably had the experience of being described as "boyish" for longer than you'd expect or deem necessary.

"You okay, honey?"

*Joley puts his hand on George's knee*

"How'd we get back so quickly to the 'honey' stage?"

"Maybe we never should have left it."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- "Hey, you! I don't care what you say, I love Les Miz! And I think Andrew Lloyd Webber's a genius!"

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $29.2 million on a $15 million budget, this opened at No. 2 and came in at No. 6 for 1998.

-- Awards Watch: Nominated by GLAAD for Outstanding Wide Release Film, The Object of My Affection lost to Gods and Monsters.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "It definitely feels like George was presented as 'not like one of THOSE gays' to appeal to mainstream audiences," Christopher James wrote in 2021 at The Film Experience. "While problematic now, these more 'mainstream' depictions helped move the needle of gay acceptance in media." "The one upstanding thing about the film is that it doesn't pander to those conventional tastes by offering a miraculous conversion," wrote Melissa Pierson, Entertainment Weekly, in 1998. "(Everything else) marks it as Hollywood's standard cheap fake." "Easier to watch than it is to believe," according to Janet Maslin. Rita Kempley: "A marshmallow of a movie: pale, pillowy and just begging to be skewered and roasted."

-- Critic's Corner, Jennifer and Paul: "She's the only Friend who's not a sitcom cartoon, and her occasional film work benefits from her apparent lack of definable grounding," Joshua Klein wrote at the A.V. Club in 2002. Maslin: "Aniston has the enviable problem of seeming too young, adorable and funny for the role she plays ... (she) is as skillful here as she is miscast." Todd McCarthy, Variety: "Aniston, while pleasant, doesn't bring any depthy or unexpected notes to the role. Rudd bears up pretty well under the constraints of his nice-guy role, and the actor ... (lends) George more weight than is apparent on the page."

-- Critic's Corner, Nigel: "An actor of such obvious magnitude that when he's on screen, the surrounding actors seem, well, better suited for TV," Klein wrote. Maslin: "He sounds the film's only notes of real poignancy." "Suddently, a character walks in from nowhere and becomes the movie's center of interest," Roger Ebert wrote.

-- Musical Moments: The score is 10-7, still favoring non-original songs. Object's entry is "You Were Meant for Me," performed by Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain, Audra McDonald at the wedding reception and Sting under the credits. I was surprised that "All For You" by Sister Hazel, which I remember so vividly from Object's trailer and TV ads, wasn't actually in the movie itself.

-- Fanservice Junction: Rudd, Daly and Gulinello all are seen shirtless.

-- Object's journey from page to screen was complicated, as Entertainment Weekly reported. After the novel was published in 1987, it was optioned for Fox by producer Laurence Mark. Wasserstein wrote the first of more than a dozen scripts, which was ultimately rejected. In 1989, the project moved to Paramount, which would have had James Bridges direct. By 1991, it was back to Fox, then Paramount again. Wasserstein said the studio suggested that George ultimately be straight, which she refused to write. The following year, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker partcipated in a reading of the script. After that, with Mark's permission, Wasserstein pulled the script out of circulation and continued to tinker with it. In addition to Matthew and Sarah, Debra Winger, Kyra Sedgwick, Winona Ryder, Uma Thurman, Matthew Modine and Keanu Reeves were all considered or ultimately passed on playing Nina and George.

-- Hey, It's 1998!: Rothman reported on projects in the works including sequels to My Best Friend's Wedding and The Birdcage, the latter by Bruce Vilanch (!). Rupert Everett was working on a comedy, Martha and Arthur, "about a marriage of convenience between a gay man and heterosexual woman." This apparently had nothing to do with the movie he ended up making, The Next Best Thing. Rupert was also "currently shaping a 'gay James Bond' thriller -- but where the sexuality is incidental to the plot." Once again, Larry Kramer was not impressed, saying that the closest "real live gay man" he saw in the movies "was Rupert Everett -- 'and that's daming by faint praise.'" He also didn't care for As Good as It Gets or In & Out.

-- Hey, It's ...!: Hayden Panettiere, Liam Aiken, Gabriel Macht, Daniel Cosgrove, Damian Young and Paz de la Huerta.

-- "Head up, young person."

-- Next: The Odd Couple II. On deck: Sliding Doors.