Regardless of making the yuletide gay, Single All the Way, for all the praise it’s gotten (mainly for the presence of known ghoul Jennifer Coolidge being part of the cast), does nothing to change what’s already an issue in hetero holiday rom-coms. Let’s call it: trumpeting 50s-era, “good old-fashioned” Republican values. If anything, Michael Mayer (who must relish the barrage of theater-related dialogue in the movie) and Chad Hodge, the director and writer behind the “holiday romp,” only seem to want to perpetuate what should have been undone ages ago as a collective mentality. Long story short, Peter (Michael Urie, who may never top Ugly Betty), a “social media strategist”–it’s just a job that feels like it needs to be in quotation marks–is tired of having to go home every Christmas without a boyfriend to parade around to his family. Because apparently, gay men have forgotten how glorious it used to be to make fun of the heteros for their conventional lifestyle (as the heteros presumed they were engaging in their own cliches, like foam parties and pony play). That by wanting so badly to “legalize love,” the gay community has lost all its edge.
And where once they could be counted on to espouse an “outsider” lifestyle (by default because they were rendered outsiders by conventions of society), it seems now they’ve only become the greatest champions of normie existence. As Jim Parsons’ version of Henry Willson phrases it in Hollywood, “Before you know it, your guy wants to play house. Have you ever spent a Saturday picking out some cheerful, daffodil-colored linoleum for the kitchen? I have… and it is enough to make you wistful for the days of secret sodomy.” And sure, it’s difficult to begrudge a “sect” of people who have been denied the same common rights as everyone else for so long (ergo going over the top in how they’ve embraced these rights), but to reiterate a message that’s so patently antiquated and designed as part of the capitalist agenda to make anyone who doesn’t fall in line–by falling “in love”–feel “lesser than” is really not “the vibe” to perpetuate.
Alas, the entire driving force behind Peter at last realizing his long-standing love for his roommate of almost a decade, Nick (Philemon Chambers), stems from his need to please his family by pretending that he and Nick have finally realized how much in love they are with each other after all these years. Or at least that’s the plan until Peter’s mother, Carole (Kathy Najimy), informs him that her first Christmas present to him this year is a blind date she set up with her gym’s fitness instructor, James (Luke Macfarlane), seemingly the first and only other gay ever to arrive in Eastbridge, New Hampshire (a location that means, obviously, filming in Montreal just like A Diva’s Christmas Carol). Nick is eager to jump on the enthusiasm train about this before they can go through with telling their lie. Ostensibly because he doesn’t want to deal with the awkwardness and disingenuousness of such a charade for the next ten days…possibly because it’s very scary already to be the lone Black man amid a sea of snowflakes during this very White Christmas. But it isn’t totally disingenuous as we’re meant to see the clear spark between these two men who know one another better than anybody else ever could.
And yet, to Peter’s surprise, he’s actually quite into his coffee date with James. So much, in fact, that during their second ski-oriented rendezvous the following day, Peter feels comfortable enough to overshare regarding the scheme he had going on with Nick before he arrived. When James asks why he would bother to go through all that, Peter replies, “My family is terrified I’ll be alone forever and I didn’t want to hear about it.” It’s perhaps an unintentionally great way to emphasize just how much the unhealthy opinions and influence of one’s family can render a person totally neurotic and insecure. Perhaps Peter would feel completely comfortable with his “sad” singledom were it not for these people constantly playing the greatest hits of “You’re Inadequate” aphorisms in his head regarding how he needs to “find someone.”
And sure, Peter realizes it would be much more convenient to be with “someone”–as he says, “I’d be really happy. And I wouldn’t have to be single at Christmas.” As though that’s the only viable reason to bother with the emotional stress of a relationship. Simply to unburden oneself of other people’s archaic judgments. Which is the greatest irony about Single All the Way. That despite “blazing a trail” in being the first gay Christmas movie for Netflix, all it does is parade heteronormative views in a bid to be “un-othered.”
One gay trope that remains is, as indicated by Coolidge, the essential wielding of strong women in pop culture. Significantly, the music supervisor managed to secure the rights to Whitney Houston’s “Joy to the World,” unlike A Clüsterfünke Christmas, calling out its lack of budget to afford Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by instead offering Shaniah Gary’s “All I’ll Have For Christmas Is Fruit” (how gay-friendly). The soundtrack budget further flexes in Single All the Way after the mention of Peter’s Britney posters being taken down by his mother. And perhaps this allusion meant it was only a matter of time before the far under-used and under-rated “My Only Wish (This Year)” would appear in a big way as Peter proceeds to quote the lyric, “Santa can you hear me?” before delving into some choreo with his nieces as the real Britney song plays in the background.
And where there’s Britney in a “queer movie,” there’s also Madonna. Paraded as Aunt Sandy (Coolidge) proceeds to quote something that any Madonna fan could identify right away, but Peter wants to make sure that the laymen are aware of the reference by turning to Nick and explaining, “Word for word Madonna’s pre-show prayer from Truth or Dare.” Perhaps this “nod” is compensation for the time Coolidge’s character in 2 Broke Girls asked, “Remember when Madonna was alive?”
Despite the presence (and present) of these Very Gay Icons, the entire intent of Single All the Way is to help signal the “gay genre” as not separate from any other holiday movie showcasing straights doing basic-ass shit as well. To portray homosexuality as having nothing to do with the former (though, to be honest, still very current) strifes that came with it (e.g. ostracization and verbal/physical abuse at every turn). Unfortunately, with the mantra Legalize Gay has also arrived Heteroize Gay. In other words, the gays have successfully join the cult of what “normalcy” entails: “lifelong” monogamy and having children, paired with the capitalistic lust for owning a home and all the associated shit one might fill it with. In essence, those 50s-era Republican values still deemed as American as apple pie and, well, homophobia.
