Apparently, the makers of "The Birdcage" were so convinced that their idea was "cute" that they dispensed with the luxury of a "plot." The film follows the efforts of two gay men, one a somewhat reserved middle-aged homosexual, Armand Goldman (Robin Williams), and the other a flaming drag queen, Albert (Nathan Lane), to turn themselves into respectable enough people to satisfy right-wing Senator Keeley (Gene Hackman) and his wife, Louise (Dianne Wiest), so that Armand's son can marry the Keeleys' daughter. This may be a set-up worthy of a half-hour skit, but not a movie.

The resolution of loose ends (no pun intended) at the end of "The Birdcage" feels like the setup for an inevitable sequel. Sen. Keeley is a Pat Buchanan clone who suddenly ends up accepting his new in-laws just because they help him out a little bit. Yeah, right: If Pat could just come to know and love homosexuals as people he'd come around (again, no pun intended) just like that.

A more likely result would be that the conservative senator, upon hearing that his son-in-law's father is both gay and Jewish, drops dead from an aneurysm. Now there's a happy ending.