So the Senator just decided to bury the hatchet and accept Val's parents? It feels like there should have been an extra scene before the credits/wedding scene showing how everything got resolved.
"I've been living on toxic waste for years, and I'm fine. Just ask my other heads!"
SPOILERS ahead, of course... ____________________________
There may have been such a scene, but sometimes those things get removed because they are extraneous and really not necessary.
For me, that entire switch happens after the "I feel like I'm insane" comment, the "I hope this doesn't influence your vote" comment, and then the moment when his picture is almost taken.
From there, you cut to their private room upstairs where he's laying in a chair, shoes off, with a cool cloth on his head, and he just looks utterly defeated.
In those moments, people often become receptive to new realities they weren't formerly open to. And in this case, Albert (after horrifying the senator an hour or so before) comes up with a brilliant plan to help the senator escape from what he feels is a disastrous situation.
In the process, of course, Senator Keely ends up donning a dress, a wig, and makeup, in essence (just barely) becoming a transvestite himself, and is able to escape the situation.
One would think that after that whole scenario, he'd be a little more open to and endeared to Armand and Albert, as well as Val. In the end, perhaps he just realizes his daughter was in love with Val, and all pivoted on his love for his daughter.
After all, it wasn't supposed to be a remake of Romeo and Juliet...
Somebody brought a monkey, because the monkey knocked over the salad bar...
its been a few years since I've seen it, but the last i remember just before they escape in drag was alley mcbeal telling the homosexuals i would have loved to have been part of your family i kind of took that to mean now they know their gay the wedding is off ,and its doesn't seem to get contradicted before the credits role. maybe i should watch it again with older eyes
The previous poster did not say that there was a gay wedding, though their statement was missing two words and a coma, and has one grammatically incorrect word.
What they typed was:
now they know their gay the wedding is off
By which they meant: "now that they know thatthey're gay, the wedding is off"
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The U.S. Senator had his political career saved by the quick thinking of the gay couple. So, from an entirely pragmatic perspective he had to allow the marriage to go ahead, least his career end in scandal.
His daughter would have been legally allowed to marry without parental consent soon anyways.
The film tries to suggest some future tension, with the guests starring at each other, while sitting in their wedding seats. Two sequels were made of the French film, but I don't think they got into party politics/gay rights much.
He may well have been more accepting of Albert and Armand and perhaps even the whole gay lifestyle. However, he was still going to suffer blowback from his association with Senator Jackson. He was up for re-election and unfortunately, the Jackson scandal and the marriage of his daughter to the son of a gay couple were going to hurt him in certain conservative circles. Talk-show a$$hat, Rush Limbaugh, would certainly have been on him.
I believe the "transformation" of the Senator's opinion/view of the Goldmans was embodied in his learning of the lyrics to the song "We Are Family". As he is making his way through the crowd at the end.....plus maybe he liked being in drag, lmao!
The senator realized he liked Albert's sensibilities -- and therefore liked Albert. The things Albert said (at least in general) while he was impersonating Val's mother were pretty much how he felt -- albeit sanitized a bit for the senator -- and the senator generally agreed with those things.
He still may not agree with their lifestyle, but he can accept it. The point was that the senator and Albert actually have much in common (in the broad general sense).
Well either he realized he was being close minded because these gay people saved his career instead of throwing him to the sharks, or he figured if he didn't go along with the wedding they could out him in the scandal and his career would be over.
I agree. I think the movie needed an extra 5 minutes after he escapes from the nightclub to show how he had changed. It was missing a resolution, or denouement.
~ There's nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster.