Movie Review : ‘It’s My Party’: A Well-Controlled, Emotional Love Story

In Randall Kleiser’s pull-no-punches “It’s My Party,” Nick Stark (Eric Roberts) and Brandon Theis (Gregory Harrison) have it all. They’re both successful--Nick as an architect, Brandon as a film director. They’re handsome, in the prime of life, share a beautiful Hollywood Hills home and have been together for eight years. Then comes the day when Nick tells Brandon that he’s tested positive for the AIDS virus.

Unlike the couple in “Philadelphia” and the couples in “Longtime Companion,” Nick and Brandon cope badly with the news. Nick is as afraid of Brandon abandoning him as Brandon, who’s tested negative, is terrified of somehow becoming infected by Nick. They’re so overwhelmed by the new reality in their lives that the day comes when Brandon forces Nick to leave.

A year passes, and while Nick still looks great, he begins to fail rapidly and learns that he has untreatable brain lesions that will destroy his faculties within days. He decides to throw a two-day party, inviting relatives and friends, before taking an overdose of Seconal. Not surprisingly, Brandon is not invited, but the former couple’s friend Charlene (Margaret Cho) believes he needs to know what’s happening and leaves it up to him whether to attend.

“It’s My Party” is a heartbreaker, a film of naked emotion, first and foremost a love story that also asserts the right of the terminally ill individual to decide when to end his or her life. Unlike most other films that reveal the devastation of AIDS--and many other terrible diseases, for that matter--”It’s My Party” focuses on two people who are far from perfect.

Nick and Brandon are very different from each other: Mercurial Nick is an extrovert, a party animal, whereas the sober Brandon is a bit prim and swift to put career first. The very opposite qualities that attracted each to the other in the first place may well also be the same ones that drive them apart in the face of crisis. Kleiser shows flaws on both sides but since nothing is really ever equal, he suggests that Brandon is more to blame for their breakup than Nick.

Now Brandon is confronted at last with the inescapable reality that the love of his life is going to die--imminently. He decides to go to Nick’s party, where he is greeted coldly by Nick’s friends and relatives. Nick is himself cool but since he doesn’t ask Brandon to leave, Brandon stays. As the hours go by, suspense develops as to whether Brandon will have a chance for a genuine reconciliation with Nick.

Nick and Brandon offer Roberts and Harrison unparalleled opportunities as actors, and arguably neither has ever been better. In Nick, Roberts has found a role that contains his intensity and allows him reflective, giving moments of real power. In Brandon, Harrison shows us an often far-from-sympathetic man capable of breaking through self-absorption to a profound sense of self-discovery--an awareness, however, that may have come too late.

“It’s My Party” has an enormous cast of first-rate supporting players headed by Lee Grant, in an understated, glowing portrayal of Nick’s Greek mother, gathering strength to face a terrible loss. Cho is pivotal as the lovely, intelligent woman who first brings Brandon into the party and then copes with the unexpected arrival of Nick’s long-absent father (George Segal). Bronson Pinchot is the agent who gives Brandon the hardest time, and Devon Gummersall is Nick’s gay nephew.

Other relatives of Nick are played by Marlee Matlin, Olivia Newton-John, Bruce Davison and Dimitra Arlys. Paul Regina is Nick’s loyal friend and housemate, and Roddy McDowall is a Catholic friend vehemently opposed to suicide. There are cameos by Nina Foch, Sally Kellerman and others.

It’s Nick’s nephew who bluntly states his opposition to the whole idea of the party; the party does seem an acutely uncomfortable place to be, but as the film unfolds, with swiftness and economy, we accept that after all the point is that Nick and his loved ones will have a chance to say goodbye to one another--that this is what Nick wants, which is what counts. (A good touch: One young man, on the verge of tears, feels he must slip away without saying goodbye.)

As far back as his award-winning USC master’s thesis film, “Peege,” inspired by his own grandmother, Kleiser has always had a special feel in portraying family relationships. He’s also told love stories before--e.g, “The Blue Lagoon”--but never one of such depth. In “It’s My Party” he combines the two concerns with such remarkable control and detachment that you are likely to be moved to tears.

* MPAA rating: R, for language and brief nudity. Times guidelines: The film is too emotionally harrowing for children.

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‘It’s My Party’

Eric Roberts: Nick Stark

Gregory Harrison: Brandon Theis

Lee Grant: Amalia Stark

Margaret Cho: Charlene Lee

A United Artists presentation of an Opala production. Writer-director Randal Kleiser. Producers Joel Thurm, Kleiser. Executive producers Robert Fitzpatrick, Gregory Hinton. Cinematographer Bernd Heinl. Editor Ila von Hapsberg. Costumes Daniele King. Music Basil Pouledouris. Production designer Clark Hunter. Set decorator Traci Kirshbaum. Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.

* At selected theaters.