It was a rainy Saturday morning. My boyfriend and I decided to see a movie. Since I am game to see just about anything (except slasher films and re-issues of break dance movies) I let him pick what we would see. I was pleasantly surprised when he selected Topsy Turvy. I had heard many good things about the movie and had wanted to see it. As the concession stand clerk generously pumped an extraordinary amount of "golden-flavored popcorn topping" on my $6.50 "value" bag of popcorn (hey, it was lunch!) the aforementioned boyfriend said "This is a gay-themed movie, right?"

I don't know what movie he thought we were seeing, but he obviously thought it was going to be something else. (Not unlike the time my ex-boyfriend returned from the video store with "The Joy Luck Club." We watched the movie about Asian women and their daughters. It was excellent. As the closing credits rolled my ex said "I thought I had heard it was about a gay couple and the Asian partner marries an Asian woman to please his parents." He had been wanting to see "The Wedding Banquet" and got Asian actors on the box cover mixed up. But I digress.) Luckily, current boyfriend enjoyed this movie.

It's about Gilbert and Sullivan who wrote many famous operettas. This movie deals with them writing one of their most popular works, The Mikado. I enjoyed the film very much but have to admit that nothing really happened in two-and-a-half hours. Gilbert and Sullivan have a hard time working together. Gilbert (or was it Sullivan - no matter) comes up with the idea to base their new work on Asian culture (maybe that's the thing that seems to confuse my boyfriends) after visiting an exhibition in London. Throughout the entire movie you're treated to entire productions of the most famous songs from The Mikado. If you like G & S operettas, you'll love that part of the movie. If you cringe at the thought of "Three Little Maids", you'd better stay home.

It's a beautiful, period, costume drama, but since nothing really happens it's hard to become to engaged in the characters. The choice to not reveal too much about the lives of the characters also keeps the audience at a distance. One singer in the company is widowed and seems to have a drinking problem. She's reprimanded and told she is on probation. I wondered if she managed to stay sober. Another singer had a horrible looking sore on her leg. In one rehearsal she was hobbling around on a cane, but on opening night she was fine on stage. What was wrong with her. Still another character was lovable, but shown shooting up drugs opening night and not looking too well on stage. Was he an addict? Was he ill? These were things I wanted to know.

My favorite thing about the movie was the same William Morris knock-off wallpaper that hangs in our kitchen and bathroom was used in the movie in the a dressing room. How exciting!

Listen to me: Unless you really enjoy light opera, are confused about films that have anything to do with the Eastern hemisphere or have the same wallpaper as I do, I think you can skip this one.

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