SYNOPSIS: A young man must hide the secret of his "parentege" – he was raised by two gay men – from his conservative girlfriend's parents at a dinner party celebrating the couples' engagement.

BOTTOM LINE: I have been a huge fan of Robin Williams since he was Mork from Ork and consider him to be an amazing actor, especially when he chooses to channel his energy. He is the god of comic timing and the BIRDCAGE showcases his talent in a new way for most people, by constraining it. His performance and Nichols firm direction anchor what could have been nothing more than a string of clichés. Lane plays "the woman" in their relationship, giving Williams the chance to play one of few straight roles he's ever had...so to speak.

His character, Armand, is a gay nightclub owner, who lives in South Beach with his "wife" Albert, played by Nathan Lane. Armand is certainly the less effeminate of the two, but no one could mistake him for a heterosexual man. They are very happy and have a fairly unexciting life – that is until Armand's son Val (he was conceived in a dalliance years before so that Armand and Albert could have a family) announces that he's engaged. The only problem is that his fiancée (Flockheart) is the daughter of an extreme right-wing senator, played by Hackman, for whom the lives of his potentially new in-laws would create quite a problem on re-election day.

As one would expect, chaos ensues when they try to convince the senator and his wife, played by Dianne Wiest, over dinner that they are a regular, happy, non-Jewish, heterosexual family. It's one close call after another mainly due to the bumbling of their houseboy Agadar Sparticus (in a brilliant, swishy, almost annoying turn by Hank Azaria). The dinner turns out to be just soup, which Spartacus serves in less than appropriate soup bowls. Albert, made-up as a woman and pretending to be Val's mother, talks the senator's ear off, telling him exactly what he wants to hear and spinning yarns about their family neither Armand nor Val can keep straight. When it seems they might get off the hook, Val's birth mother – who they enlisted to help – finally shows up which ends the charade, much to the shock of the senator.