Fridae

Folks, we've been very lucky. Since LGBT films (Brokeback Mountain, TransAmerica and Capote) dominated the Oscars in February and March, we've been getting a steady stream of gay-friendly films. Straight films like V For Vendetta and Russian Dolls proudly incorporate key gay characters into their plots, while two recent musicals Rent and The Producers riotously celebrate the gay community.

However, the icing on our big moist fruitcake arrived in cinemas last week and it is called Where The Truth Lies. This LGBT murder-mystery is cool, elegant, intriguing and omnisexual �" just the sort of story Agatha Christie would write if she was a closet lesbian. As it turns out, the story is actually written by a Broadway-loving bachelor called Rupert Holmes who once composed songs for Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick. How utterly gay!

Set in the martini-swilling seventies, Where The Truth Lies tells the story of a famous showbiz duo Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth (sort of like Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin) who are making big bucks and bedding beautiful women at the height of their success. But when a naked girl (Rachel Blanchard, a dead ringer for Diane Kruger) turns up dead in their hotel bathtub, it spells the end of their partnership.

Although they claim they have nothing to do with the murder, journalist Alison Lohman thinks otherwise. Strutting about in her Hermes wrap dresses, killer heels and disco eye shadow, Alison is the sort of high-flying journalist who'll is determined to uncover the truth and along the way has a Sapphic encounter with a young actress (Kristin Adams).

Directed by acclaimed arthouse director Atom Egoyan, Where The Truth Lies is a story that gets more and more mysterious at it progresses. The audience has to constantly rearrange the pieces of the puzzle, and reassess what they know of the story. All is finally revealed in a psychosexual climax of deceit and counter-deceit that would have made Sigmund Freud proud.

So where does the truth really lie? Let's just say it is buried somewhere in the crack of Kevin Bacon's butt. Which might explain why it's sagging a little...

Sagging butt aside, Kevin delivers an effortlessly fine performance in this film. He puts his overconfident smirk to perfect use in his role as a showbiz slimeball, who can be charming and repulsive at once. His co-star Colin Firth is equally fine. As the classier showbiz partner, Colin overplays his stiff English persona only to subvert it dramatically.

Lohman, on the hand, is an enigma. With her soft Bambi eyes, strawberry blonde hair and ghostly-pale complexion, she looks out-of-place in this sleazy wonderland of Hollywood showbiz. It prompts that age-old question of "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" (To which I'd reply, "She just wants to have hot three-way sex with young actresses and ageing male celebs.")

Where The Truth Lies is a must-watch for LGBT viewers. After all, there are plenty of coming-out-of-the-closet comedies and tortured gay dramas involving hustlers. But a good LGBT murder-mystery is almost as rare as a gay cowboy romance.