Why didn't Mr. Church admit he was gay at the end? She wouldn't care

What makes you think he's gay?

The impression I got was that he was in love with Charlotte's mom. When he was sitting with Charlotte's daughter and telling her the 'Once Upon A Time' story about the boy named Henry who chased a ladybug - then you see that Church had a painting of Charlotte's mom in his room.

I just assumed he was in love with her. If there was a gay tangent in the film, I was totally ignorant of it.

Are you certain you are referring to the right film?

Mr. Church wasn't gay. He had been married before but, as he explained, it was a marriage his father expected so he married the woman but for whatever reason they went their separate ways. He says the marriage, "didn't take." His ex-wife wasn't the 'one' for him. I agree with others; it is more than understood that he was in love with Charlotte's mother. After Charlotte's mother died, he simply never found another woman who touched his heart the way Charlotte's mom had.

In answer to your question, he wasn't gay. He loved Jazz & playing the piano; the Jelly Slice gave him an outlet to express his love of jazz through playing the piano with the group. It was nothing more than that. The man who came up at his funeral was a friend who was there on behalf of others who had heard him play, as well as realizing something must be wrong b/c he wasn't able to go there after he got sick.

Please make a mental note: Not all divorcees remarry later, just as not all couples or single people have children. And, just because a person isn't dating anybody doesn't mean you should jump to the conclusion that the person is gay or lesbian.

(FYI: I have an aunt who never married nor had children. She always said she had plenty of children to care for b/c she was the head nurse of the NICU of a hospital where she lived. It was also a "safe-haven" where mothers could leave their infants w/o being charged with abandonment. My aunt was a Nurse Practitioner (the highest level of nursing a person can have) & the head nurse. They gave the babies who were abandoned strong names with lots of TLC incl'g rocking, talking & singing to them, & even giving the babies skin-on-skin contact, which is proven to give infants like this more of a fighting chance to survive as well as fewer cases of detachment disorder from lack of bonding. She even spent some nights at the hospital if they had a particular infant that req'd more one-on-one care. So yes, she was right. She had no need to marry or have children of her own. She had a large family through the hospital that incl'd many parents of miracle babies who managed to survive despite being born severely premature & spending as high as several months to a year in the NICU. At her funeral, there were many families who came with the babies she had cared for over the 40+yr span of her career. It was truly amazing to actually witness the lives she touched & hear the stories they told. I found out that she was still having mail coming for several years after she died. A cousin took over collecting her mail & responding to the parents & children who didn't know she died. Family isn't only made up of blood relations. It's people you bring close to your life & when they are gone, it's as if you have lost a part of yourself.)

Wow. I can't believe so many people didn't get that he was gay. When he was drunk he'd be arguing with his dad saying "I'm not a ------" and he clearly said the F word that rhymes with maggot, more than once. He also said something about his dad disowning him. It seemed pretty obvious that he was gay and disowned by his dad who might have even been a preacher.

I think that it wasn't really a part of their relationship or his life while they were a family. Also it seemed like it was maybe the mid 80s or late 80s at the most. People were still very much in the closet then.


I took the subway to Wayne Station and Batwalked up the road.

In my humble opinion (I could be wrong), he was not gay. But I can see how a gay critic/movie viewer can find him to be gay as well, because the movie not telling us enough about his past leaves room for such interpretation.

I prefer to think he was not. Thinking he was straight will help me keep a better memory of a memorable movie!

Bravo Mr. Murphy!

I'm curious about why they shied away from revealing he was gay... or at least what the source of the discord with his father was. The movie heavily implied he was gay and that Jelly's was a gay club... if that Charlie thought it was. Thus her hiding the matchbooks because she thought they'd embarrass mr Church. I get that she thought being drunk at what she perceived as a lowlife bar... but that level of shame? I just don't get that.

Frankly, revealing he was gay instead of just complex and human can be seen as bravely understated... but it was definitely anti-climatic after all the intrigue.

At first I thought he was gay, but reflecting back I'm not quite positive that is the case. I think there are equal arguments for both him being gay, or being in love with Marie. You pointed out the scene where he stumbles in drunk and mentions his father calling him a *beep* However, the story that he tells Izzy at the end of the movie definitely made it sound like he very much liked women, and that he had fallen in love with Marie. There is also the picture of her in bedroom. Rather than a painted picture of both her and Charlie, it was just a self portrait of Marie. Also, if you look back at him standing outside of Jelly's, he actually walks inside with two women.

Because sexuality was part of his private life. Even though he had a full life with lots of interests, he tended to keep each private. He wasn't gay, he loved Charlie's Mom and the women outside the bar. By only ranting about this when he was drunk and in reference to his father - I tend to think ol' pops wasn't only physically and verbally abusive, but sexually as well. He's telling the ghost of his father that he's not gay, because he isn't. Dad might have had other ideas at the time. We aren't sure, because we mostly view him from Charlie's viewpoint. We only really see his viewpoint a few times in the picture; when Charlie throws a tantrum about Apple Jacks when they first meet, when he's drawing her picture, when she drives off to college, and finally when he invites her home at the hospital.