A series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope
Who wouldn't want a 10 year college reunion in their rich friend's new mansion?I love a good Big Chill type set-up.
Yes, I do love the actual 1983 movie The Big Chill. However, the hit film has itself spawned an entire genre of movies and TV. How many movies have you seen where an attractive ensemble of longtime friends spend a weekend away and come to terms with central truths within the friendship. There’s always as many laughs as there are tears. The uptight people finally get drunk or stoned and loosen up. Party animals gain new depth. A collection of the greatest hits of decades past are played throughout, usually with an accompanying singalong. I eat all of it up, no matter how predictable it may be.
One of the finer entries in the genre is Kenneth Branagh’s 1992 film Peter’s Friends. It’s more than just the English re-telling of The Big Chill. The film is simultaneously a pricklier and warmer examination of what friends do and don’t tell each other...
Peter: [beginning voice-over] There are some friends you will have for the rest of your life. You're welded together by love, trust, respect, or loss. Or in our case, simple embarrassment.
Peter’s Friends refers to a group of six friends from college. After 10 years, the group reunites for a weekend at the estate of Peter (Stephen Fry), an arrested development case from a well-to-do family. Even from the get go, the movie loves Peter, rather than mocks him. All of his friends have made great strides and grown up over the decade after college. Andrew (Kenneth Branagh) is now a successful TV writer. Roger (Hugh Laurie) and Mary (Imelda Staunton) are married and new parents, skittish to leave their kids behind. Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel) is a hot costume designer. Peter remains the same guy that they all loved, for better or worse. This also means that he’s also the same rich bonvivant who has only consumed his family’s wealth, rather than extending it.
Peter: Oh, how can I put this delicately? It's just that I'm not really in the vagina business.
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Maggie: [explaining her disastrous come-on to Peter] I went upstairs and threw my clothes off.
Carol: That's direct. What'd he say?
Maggie: [beginning to sob] He said he wasn't in the vagina business.
Carol: [taken aback] That's direct too... Has Peter ever been in the vagina business?
Maggie: Yes. He slept with Sarah!
Carol: Oh, there's a surprise. Was she engaged to Peter too?
Maggie: No, they just had a brief affair.
When someone stays single well into their 30s, rumors about their sexuality tend to swirl. Throughout college, Peter was always lively and a source of joy. It seemed odd that his affable energy would never bring him girlfriends or even hook ups.
As the only similarly single (and stuck) person at the weekend, Maggie (Emma Thompson) feels as if the music in this musical chairs game of love has run out. Her and Peter are the only people left single in the group and she decides to make them an official pair. Maggie throws herself on Peter, only to be instantly rebuffed. The open question of his sexuality gets answered, though it’s not so simple. Some people tend to group people into friends and sexual prospects. While Maggie can see Peter as both, Peter is incapable. He likes the way his friendship with Maggie works and does not want that changed, especially when the attraction isn’t fully there.
Peter: I believe I am what is commonly termed bisexual, which is by the by because actually I no longer sleep with men or women. But if I did, I promise you, you'd be right up there on my wish list, together with Michelle Pfeiffer and... River Phoenix.
The road to one’s truth is long and winding. Peter’s coming out to Maggie is not exactly truthful, it’s more of an extreme response to her advances. While all his friends were getting married, having kids, or getting famous, Peter was figuring out his sexuality. It was a journey he had to go on outside of his friends, as it was a much greater taboo at the time, even among this liberal group of friends.
There aren’t many sensitive portraits of bisexuality from the early 90s. While the quote above would read as hokey by today’s standard, it was an interesting conversation to be had at that time. In terms of the arc of the movie, it’s a great moment for Peter to reclaim his own story. He knows his sexuality is the topic of gossip and he has the power to make a declaration, even if he shouldn’t feel forced to do so.
Peter: I invited you all here because… you all mean a lot to me… as you know, and… I'm sorry, this is… not very easy. Recently… I had a blood test, and it turns out I'm HIV positive.
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Maggie: Do you know who you got it from?
Peter: I haven't a clue, and I don't think it makes much difference if I did.
There are so many ways an HIV reveal twist could be offensive and hackneyed. Luckily, the script by Martin Bergman and Rita Rudner (hilarious as soap star Carol) sidesteps these potential potholes by giving Peter control of the scene. His reveal is done all on his own terms as a way to bring the group together, as Andrew’s drunken lashing out threatens to tear people apart. Fry wisely underplays the reveal, not getting close to tears while you can see the hearts sink of each of his friends. Peter is first and foremost an optimist, and his HIV diagnosis doesn’t change that. It also doesn’t ever feel like some sort of a “punishment” for the character, but merely something that unfortunately happened to queer people during that time.
This completes the arc for Peter, finally bringing the people he loves into his world. This is why the gay best friend trope has been so limiting in media. It’s always a queer person being a supporting part in the life of a straight person. Peter always made himself smaller when in the group, never being the drama driver or the one with an interior life. For once, he’s finally brought people into his life, the good and the bad. It’s a beautiful bonding moment, with Peter loved by those closest to him.
Vera: I wish you'd told me.
Peter: I thought you'd consider my plight a deserved punishment.
Vera: How could you say that to me? I've known you since you were a little boy. I used to watch you drawing at that table.
Peter: I'm sorry. I know you always disapproved of the way I lived my life.
Vera: I didn't. You had all that promise. I hated seeing what you didn't do with your life. And more, how unhappy it made you.
There’s still one more person to win over. Having been raised primarily by Vera (Phyllida Law), his housekeeper, she’s the lone person who may reject him. Even though she’s been a part of his day to day life, this open secret still remained between them. The film doesn’t simply make this a happy moment. Vera feels confused, hurt and challenged in her beliefs. Her love for Peter triumphs in the end. Yet, Law wonderfully shades the steps Vera has to take to get to this conclusion. It’s not that she disapproves of his “gay lifestyle,” she just hates seeing how his sexuality has gotten in the way of him living a happy and fulfilled life. A happy and fulfilled life doesn’t mean being married or having kids, as plenty of Peter’s friends who did that experience great unhappiness. It’s that he never got to go out there and try to live life to the fullest in the broad daylight. Hopefully this authentic coming out will spur on a new age for Peter.
Next week comes the conclusion of the series with one of my favorite queer coded characters of all time. It has been such a pleasure writing this column and interacting with all the readers. Thank you so much for your engagement.