Bruno enjoyed a strong day at the box office over the weekend but it seems word-of-mouth delivered a powerful blow as cinemagoers preferred to stay away and not be drawn into the hype. Bruno was disappointing if you were expecting undertones of ironic social commentary about the treatment of homosexuals in the world. I couldn’t help but cringe whenever Bruno’s (Sasha Baron Cohen) silly antics did nothing more but degenerate homosexuals. Many of the people, staged or not, have had little known contact with the gay population and any fears and bigotry they previously held was certainly magnified ten fold.
It’s all very well making “gay” poses and wearing bottomless pants for laughs but making overt sexual advances on guarded straight men is insulting. The only political comment of any worth is the final wrestling scene, where Bruno and his boyfriend are quite literary protected by metal barriers from a lynch mob. It was quite terrifying to watch. What a shame that Cohen didn’t use his much publicized position as a pretend homosexual to show this crowd of red necks that being gay isn’t all about sex.
