One of my all time favorites.

good back-story, and good acting

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Lots of people stating how emotional and enjoyable this film is, so I had to see it myself. Unfortunately, I can't agree with that. Robert De Niro is the grumpy from the white snow story; he's always mad, bad humored and ready to fight. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a stressed drag queen who is always calling bad names to offend other people-- everybody in this movie seems to have no problem in offending others. The money debts situations I found to be unnecessary through the whole time, but in the end it had a reason-- which isn't that good anyways. Throughout the entire movie nothing much really happens; it's only simple talking, scolding and discussions. There isn't a character that you feel like you can identify with, since they're all very nuts. In the end, I feel "Flawless" is a waste of time; the movie goes on and on and when it gets to the climax, the outcome is minimal. Pass it.

Flawless (1999)It's too easy to say the Flawless isn't. It's also too easy to say what is really irksome and artificial about this plot and its characters--a cliché of a broken down older cop and a apartment building shared with drug dealers, drug users, and most colorfully, a whole slew of cross dressers and transvestites. We know they are not going to get, even though we don't know why the cop lives there when he is so clearly out of place. And we know that the movie is about a reconciliation between these types--and stereotypes.Furthermore, the picture of these kinds of people, including the key transvestite played with a certain amount of conviction by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is one drawn by an outsider. Director Joel Schumacher is openly gay, but he is also open about not being part of the transgender world, and not understanding it at first.So for this reason, at least, the playing of clichés is too brazen and thin to be persuasive. I can't imagine people in the tranny community really being convinced, though they might still enjoy the scenes (being rare enough in a mainstream movie). But you do wonder why Hoffman was tapped for the role when there are so many really outrageously good, and excessive, actors equally and more capable in those shoes. Schumacher's explanation that he wanted someone who could play both sides of being a man seems thin. I'm guessing it was about getting two stars head to head. The writing, also by Schumacher, is painfully clumsy at time--people shouting stupidly out their windows, confrontations between drug dealers and other falling into bad clichés, on and on. And in all, it's kind of a rotten movie.Except...except for one redeeming quality that is quite beautiful, and this comes (tellingly) directly from the director's experience. And that is the way two people can be made to understand and even love each other (in their own hamstrung ways) as very different kinds of men. And how someone with a stroke can be made to sing, to come alive, even a little, more than they thought they could. Skip all the drug nonsense, all the blatant attention getting garbage that fills up most of the movie to the point of being either laughable or offensive, and enjoy what does work.

You know how comedies are supposed to make you laugh? Well, "Flawless" makes you laugh, but you're not laughing at what happens in the movie; you're laughing at the fact that the movie didn't come out very good. Certainly the idea of a homophobic cop having to make amends with a drag queen seems like it could make an interesting movie, but they didn't do it here. The whole thing just drags. The movie doesn't even really have any clever lines. Robert DeNiro should have known better than to star in this, and I think that we can all agree that Philip Seymour Hoffman did a much better job playing a gay person in "Capote".All in all, pathetic.

Flawless with its amazing chemistry and pluperfect performances by Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a very funny film which flows effortlessly into some dramatic moments. But very few want to talk about the social implications of it.Philip Seymour Hoffman is a female impersonator who lives in the same apartment building as Robert DeNiro, a retired policeman who works as a security guard. During a robbery of a drug dealer, one of Hoffman's fellow drag performers is killed and DeNiro suffers a stroke trying to prevent the crime. The drug dealers can't exactly go to the police with their story, but they have other methods of dealing with transgressors.DeNiro and Hoffman have nothing in common at all and usually confine any conversations they have with some usual shouted epithets. But DeNiro's doctor advises singing lessons as a form of speech therapy and he goes to Hoffman. They develop an unusual friendship.More unusual because it turns out that Hoffman has the stolen loot. And why Hoffman is keeping it is a matter of life and quality thereof.Hoffman is not dressing in drag for effect or to make money as a performer. Hoffman's real drag is the body parts God gave him because they don't match what's inside. Hoffman is a transgendered soul and the cost of a sex change operation is more than he could earn in a few lifetimes.Here in America our insurance companies amazingly regard a sex change as cosmetic surgery. Scary idea, but true. Recently I had some talks with a transgender person from the United Kingdom. There the debate is whether their socialized medicine system should be paying for the sex change. Either way it is frightening situation that Hoffman is put in with all that cash suddenly in his possession and the chance of matching heart and soul to body can be realized.Especially after just winning an Oscar for Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't worried about getting cast in gay roles. From the lovestruck Scotty G in Boogie Nights, to Flawless, and now to Capote, Hoffman's making one great career for himself going gay. But all three of those parts show an astonishing range and a courageous player willing to accept and master challenging roles.Of course Robert DeNiro is great, he's never anything else. And he's back in the world of lower Manhattan that he knows so well. His character turns out to be a person of great character and more than just physical strength.Flawless is a film that will make you laugh and cry, but even more important will make you think.