Get ready for more than just a Christmas movie: this Christmas get ready for the queer holidays too. Netflix’s first gay romantic comedy, Single All the Way, now streaming, has arrived to lift the holiday spirits and change a traditionally straight genre. Yes, there has been an abundance of romantic LGBT holiday movies recently, but this one tackles, in a light but interesting way, a coming out story and is aimed at a queer audience. Not to mention that the presence of gay icon Jennifer Coolidge was “like a gay dream come true,” says star Michael Urie, the film’s lead. The plot of the Christmas movie “Single forever
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The Christmas film centers on Peter (Michael Urie) and Nick (Philemon Chambers), best friends and roommates in Los Angeles who have always maintained their platonic relationship. Peter takes Nick home to New Hampshire for the holidays, where he plans to lie and pass Nick as his boyfriend, to prove to his family that he can really be in a relationship, like many romantic comedians who complain about being single.
But when Peter’s mother, Carole (Kathy Najimy), connects him with his spinning instructor James (Luke Macfarlane), both Peter and Nick are forced to confront their true feelings for each other. The script left many viewers speechless. After all, this is a family that tries to love their child, who wants the best for their child and until now we have never seen this portrait in which there is a gay son and the family, which is heterosexual, she wants her son to have an affair with another gay man. The story of the screenplay
Netflix approached screenwriter Chad Hodge (The Darkest Minds, Good Behavior) and asked him to write the streaming giant’s first gay Christmas romantic comedy. The gay writer had never written a Christmas movie before, but he took up the thought-provoking challenge. He wrote the role of Peter’s Aunt Sandy – a former off-Broadway diva in charge of the local Christmas play – with Coolidge in mind, with no guarantee that she would actually sign. When Jennifer Coolidge then accepted the role, it was a real Christmas present for the screenwriter.
“I made a list when I was starting to write this movie of all the things I wanted to see in a gay Christmas movie,” he said in several interviews, “and one of the things was Jennifer Coolidge.” Also on Hodge’s wish list for the film were: an accepting family atmosphere; a distinction between the gay life of the big city and that of the small city; and what you give up when you are away from your loving family. And instead of another story with the traumas and injustices that gay people face just because they exist, “Single Forever” chooses to tell a story about the life of gays after their coming out and what the relationship looks like. their adulthood. Representing today’s LGBT community
For this Christmas film, Hodge wanted to create a story that felt recognizable “in unique ways” to a gay audience, dotting the film with references to Instagay (gay Instagram users), the dating app Grindr and pop divas. The hope of the directors, actors and screenwriter, is that this film will help families broaden their minds a little, giving queer kids a chance. The hope of returning home at Christmas, with the person they love, without feeling despised or at fault. It is a hymn to be better, to love love in all its forms … Especially during the Christmas period where we “sponsor” our goodness a lot.
