At The Movies: Surprise! I’m Gay!

The Mexican (2001)

Surprise gay reveal: Hitman Leroy (James Gandolfini)

What’s the story: Leroy takes nurse Samantha (Julia Roberts) hostage to ensure that her boyfriend Jerry (Brad Pitt) accomplishes his mission of transporting a one-of-a-kind vintage firearm (the “Mexican” of the title) across the border. Sam eventually catches Leroy checking out another man’s ass and realizes that he’s gay, at which point she becomes his hag and gets him to spill his guts about his love problems.

James Gandolfini

Cat’s out of the bag: Leroy has one night of love with a postal worker, who gets offed by a rival killer while Jerry eventually kills Leroy in a kill-or-be-killed moment.

Bold or Blah?: Rather bold, in that Hollywood movies like their gay characters at the far end of the spectrum — either super-nelly or cartoonishly butch and leather-clad. Gandolfini’s Leroy is a bad-ass tough guy who’s quick with his fists and lethal on the trigger. He also happens to like dudes and that’s still a rare combo, especially in such a star vehicle as this. (The Mexican may have been built to show off the charisma of Pitt and Roberts, but Gandolfini handily steals the movie out from under them.)

How surprising?: Five Monkeys

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Surprise gay reveal: Millionaire Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown)

What’s the story: Musicians Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon) have the misfortune of witnessing the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Chased by the mob, the two flee Chicago the only way they know how — donning dresses and wigs, they turn themselves into Josephine and Daphne and travel to Florida as part of an all-girl band. Upon arrival, Daphne catches the eye of oft-married wealthy playboy Osgood. Joe encourages Jerry to date the rich lay-about so that he, Joe, can borrow Osgood’s yacht to woo the band’s singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe).

Joe E. Brown & Jack Lemmon

Cat’s out of the bag: At the end of this classic, breathless farce, the wigs come off and everyone has to admit to their disguises. When Daphne tells Osgood that he’s really Jerry, we expect the rich guy to be horrified, disgusted, and incredulous. Instead, in one of the greatest closing lines in the history of cinema, Osgood nonchalantly tells Daphne, “Well, nobody’s perfect.”

Bold or Blah?: Billy Wilder’s comedic roundelay remains an incredibly daring movie, particularly given that it was made during the Eisenhower era. From Sugar’s lament of “always getting stuck with the fuzzy end of the lollipop” to the film’s many gags about impotence, cross-dressing and homosexuality (“Why would a guy marry another guy?” “Security!”), Some Like It Hot is still sassy after all these years.

How surprising?: Three Monkeys

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Surprise gay reveal: Flatmates Gareth (Simon Callow) and Matthew (John Hannah)

What’s the story?: A charming group of upper middle class Brits (led by Hugh Grant) attend one wedding after another, lamenting their own unmarried state. Two of this group, Gareth and Matthew, are quite obviously a couple, so the reveal in this case isn’t to the audience but to the thick straight characters in the film. It’s not until the hedonistic Gareth drops dead during a Scottish jig and his friends gather for his memorial — thus prompting wags to refer to this movie as Four Straight Weddings and a Gay Funeral — that the heterosexuals realize they’ve had a “perfect couple” among them all along.