Saugatuck Cures

Writer Jay Paul Deratany and director Matthew Ladensack co-opt a whole bunch of tactics from the anti-gay playbook -- "reparative therapy," treacherous family members, entrapment, kangaroo courts, sham marriages -- and send them up in the road movie comedy "Saugatuck Cures." Then, as a finishing touch, they wrap it all up with cancer.

If laughter is the best therapy for the hardest things that life, and homophobes, throw at you, then the plot is a prescription for prompt relief from pains in the neck like the "pray away the gay" crowd: In order to raise the money for his mother's (Judith Chapman) experimental cancer treatment, out and single Drew (Max Adler) agrees to a plan cooked up by his alcoholic best friend, Brett (Dan Mooney) to visit anti-gay churches around the state of Michigan and offer -- for a cash donation, of course -- a "cure" for homosexuality. But as the farcical road show drags on, and the duo are plagued by setbacks, Drew begins to have doubts -- not the least because he's pricked by his conscience at the thought that he's perpetuating one of the most sinister anti-gay myths of all, and profiting from it.

The film has a clean visual style; it's well lit and effectively edited. The camerawork, however, is sometimes amateurish, as are many of the performances, and the writing is stilted, sometimes badly so. But the film avoids the plague of muddy sound, and offers a dynamic, unexpected performance by Mooney, who is not just a conniving horn dog but, as it happens, the conniving horn dog who used to be engaged to Drew's homophobic holy-roller sister Penelope (Amanda Lipinski) -- who is now (but of course!) engaged to marry a deacon named Paul (Matthew Klingler) who specializes in helping homosexuals find Jesus and turn straight. (One amusing, if overstated, sequence finds Paul cluelessly presiding over a small congregation of gay men who can't stop cruising each other even as they pay lip service to the Bible.)

The movie has a clever idea, and some fine flourishes (Drew and Brett set out on their mission in a van dubbed "Hetero-Mobile"), but nothing about it seems meant to be taken seriously; everything from the gullible parishioners to the skewered stereotypes of gays and hell-and-brimstone pastors alike is served up with a broad wink, which only sabotages the humor.

What the film needs are more moments like the one in which Brett hands Drew a check for a small fortune -- his inheritance, it turns out, from his late mother, put aside for "a rainy day." When Drew begins to decline the gift, Brett insists: "Dude," he says, "it's pouring." Such understated serious moments are the nuts and bolts that make a comedy rugged and road-worthy; without them, the jokes feel thin and the laughter half-hearted.

The material itself, for its shallow characterizations and wispy storytelling, is whole-hearted, though; and, its heart is in the right place. That, plus Mooney's natural talent for comedy and a gracious performance by Chapman, redeems the film.