There are two other excellent parts of the show. The family, especially his mother played by Joanne Woodward, is loving and stands behind him without being judgmental and the characters in the family are not overdrawn. Another excellent scene is the costume ball. You can really see the love and the happiness even in times of trouble that this group of gay friends have. The script by Ron Nyswaner is outstanding as is the directing by Jonathan Demme. Demme is one of my favorite directors. His long repertoire of wonderful movies include: SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, MARRIED TO THE MOB, SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA, and my personal favorite SOMETHING WILD. I recommend you rent them all many times.

The movie could and should have been even better. The homophobia was over done. The scene in the drug store where someone tried to pick up Denzel Washington starts off fine, but then goes overboard, ditto for the bar scene, Washington's home scene, etc. Also, Washington's character was not well written. He started off hating gay people and by the middle and end of the movie, it was unclear what he thought.

Some scenes were totally ridiculous. Chief among these was the scene where Hanks has to babble a long soliloquy signifying nothing while listening to Opera music. Finally, both lawyers at the trial were too low key for such an important case, and Mary Steenbergen was terribly miscast as she frequently is. Her script was so bad on the other hand, you kind of had to kind of feel sorry for her. She has a very limited range of acting abilities, but seems to be cast in widely differing roles.