A fan of Die, Mommy Die, Charles Busch's brilliant send-up/homage to 60's era Bettie Davis/Joan Crawford thrillers like Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, I was intrigued by the Philadelphia International GLBT film festival's offering of A Very Serious Person - Busch's directorial debut - which it promised was very different than Busch's earlier, spoofier films. Different, yes. As good as? Sadly not.

A Very Serious Person is the tale of Gil, a young orphan who is spending one final summer with his dying grandmother before moving on to Florida to live with distant relatives - and Jan (Charles Busch) the white-clad, male nurse comes like a Danish angel to comfort the grandmother in her final days - and to help bring Gil and his grandmother closer together. If you think this sounds like one of those schmaltzy Made-For-TV movies that the stars of yesteryear routinely showed-up in during the late 70's and early 80's, you're not alone - I had the same thought. For much of the film I was convinced this was a clever, intentional conceit to help set the time period- as the film also has the visual look and overall feel of those movies, down to the title designs, opening sequence, jazz score and the cheesy piano-heavy opening song. I half-expected the credit "With Very Special Guest Star, Charles Busch," to roll up the credit screen. So I was quite literally jolted out of my seat when midway through the film someone mentioned their "cellphone" and later their "email addresses" - putting the movie very much in modern day.

Another clue that this movie takes place in modern times is the fact that there is an open question about young Gil's sexuality - a subject not so often visited in family fare TV when I was growing up. Perhaps "question" is the wrong word - it is certainly a matter for debate. His grandmother clearly believes him to be straight. Jan and Lee (played by Busch's collaborator, Carl Andress, Lee is one of two colorful characters Jan and Gil make friends with at the local ghetto beauty salon) both believe Gil to be gay, although they have different opinions of what that means for the boy. Elitist Jan wants to teach him discretion and protect him from potential harm from outside influence, while Lee believes his open spirit and enthusiasm shouldn't be quashed with secretism and self-loathing. As for Gil himself, he seems pretty sure he's gay; but this has more to do with his love of old movies and beautiful things than anything else; he hasn't yet worked out if he's actually attracted to other boys.

Aside from a few scenes in which this motif is trotted out and heavily danced around, however, most of that theme is played in the background. The bulk of the film focuses on Gil's relationship with his grandmother. Well, and Jan's relationship with the grandmother. Oh, and Jan's relationship with Gil. Actually, somewhere about half-way through the movie stops really being about Gil and begins being about Jan. It is Jan's travels the audience follows, Jan's back story the audience learns, and..frankly...Jan gets all the best lines. Even without the pithy duologue, Busch easily steals the film from the inexperienced young P.J. Verhoest. Busch is a a great talent with a charming smile and unerring elegance who is a delight to watch - and he's easily the strongest part of the film. The only person in the cast who truly holds their own with him is the seasoned Polly Bergen (who portrays Gil's grandmother, and who gets a few good lines herself). There's an interesting on-screen energy between the two-of-them,which left me wishing they had more scenes together.

In the end, this over development of Jan left Gil as largely underdeveloped- a flaw in a film which is ostensibly about a tumultuous time in a the life of one young boy. (It is certainly structured that way - beginning with Gil's arrival and ending with his leaving for his new life.) Disappointly, Gil devolves from being the crux of the film to being a prop around which the writers air their views on what it means to grow up gay. A Very Serious Person has it's moments - but they were too few and far between the schmaltz for me.