Partners (1982)

[5]

A straight detective (Ryan O’Neal) and a closeted gay police clerk (John Hurt) are summoned by their police chief (Kenneth McMillan) to pose as an undercover gay couple to try and solve a series of murders in the gay community. Yes, Partners is a buddy-comedy version of Cruising, where the straight man overcomes a mild case of homophobia and the closeted gay man begins to enjoy domestication as they close in on the killer.

Partners certainly has its problems. The comedic buddy aspect of the script feels at odds with the deadly-serious murder plot. O’Neal and Hurt have questionable chemistry, too. Hurt’s character is so shy and quiet during the first half of the film, he’s often relegated to set decoration for O’Neal’s one-man show. And, yes, there are some gay stereotypes at play here (none worse than a slutty motel clerk who starts feeling O’Neal up under a table).

But while the film doesn’t work in some critical ways, I do think its heart is in the right place. While the police chief thought Hurt would somehow be a flaming tour guide through gay-land for O’Neal, both men are really fish out of water in a gay neighborhood. And both are smart enough to know that O’Neal’s good looks are their best bet when trying to get people to talk. O’Neal finds just the right shade of humility in those moments — including one in which he has to don a skimpy leather outfit and ask a fetishist on a date. O’Neal is uncomfortable and embarrassed, but never homophobic.

O’Neal’s character also surprises me by growing quite comfortable with the same-sex living arrangement. At one point, he agrees to go buy bread for dinner, which Hurt’s character has been preparing each night. He kisses Hurt on the forehead and heads out the door — then stops for a second. Writer Francis Veber (who’d later get an Oscar nomination for The Birdcage) and director James Burrows (prolific TV director of Cheers and Will & Grace) are wise not to put too fine a point on it, but that little wordless moment is perhaps the most consequential one in Partners. Without fanfare or need of defense, it quietly normalizes gay people. And in 1982, that required some degree of courage for a studio production.

With James Remar, who, curiously enough, was also in Cruising.