Surprisingly incoherent and boring

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I will start by saying RIP Phillip Seymour Hoffman - his acting talents were magnificent and we truly lost a special person. Every one of his films is acted with passion and dedication and "Flawless" is no different. He is special in this and his portrayal of the fierce drag queen is tender and heartfelt whilst also being fierce and powerful. Robert De Niro is of course brilliant in his role and really did an incredible job playing a stroke survivor - that is no easy feat and he has put his all in to every movement and every word spoken. This film should be watched for the acting talent and energy of these two actors alone as well as the character study of two very interesting people who find themselves with unique challenges to face in life. The cinematography is not top notch (the film was made in '99 so it does have a rustic quality) but it's perfectly fine. The focus here is on the characters, colourful and frantically trying to find connections in a difficult world. They are flawed in some ways through sheer stubborness or quick tempers but they aren't all that different when it comes down to it - they are both flawed in similar ways and maybe that's why their friendship works. It doesn't feel forced - it grows naturally and their chemistry is on fire. I loved this film - it depicts the world of drag queens wonderfully and the difficulties members of the LGBT community faced in the 90's. For the time it was made I applaud it - it hasn't tried to sugar coat anything and it has thrust us in to a layered and colourful and magical environment. Loved it loved it loved it .It's on Netflix UK right now so watch it.

What do Kevin Spacey, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe have in common. They were all up for the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Screen Actors Guild competition. Spacey won for American Beauty, but Hoffman was there for this film.You can always predict that Robert De Niro will turn in a good performance, and he certainly did as a homophobic security guard who has a stroke while trying to stop a drug shootout.He has to ask Hoffman, a transvestite lounge singer that lives in his building, for help in recovering, after his physical therapist tells him that singing improves stroke victims.This is set amidst a huge group of drag queens competing in a talent contest, and drug dealers trying to get their stolen money back.It is hilarious and sad at the same time. Every gay and drag joke you can imagine is here along with tragedy that will make you cry.What is great is the transformation made by people that just take the time to get to know one another.Hoffman was magnificent. Wilson Jermaine Heredia was a riot.

Is there NOTHING DeNiro CAN'T do? Not to mention Phillip Seymour Hoffman!! Robert has been in my Top 10 List of Actors for many years, and now Phillip is climbing to be right at #10.This movie sure pulls at the heart strings, and for me being a Gay man who's grown up with similar figures in his life, I can't help but love and feel warmed by the way these people handle the "Lot In Life" they've been given. "Happiness is but a choice away." These characters show us how their choices were experienced, and hopefully it will help many others in their current choices.Thank you, Robert! Thank you, Phillip! for giving us such great entertainment, and maybe a lesson or two along the way. :-)

Flawless with its amazing chemistry and pluperfect performances by Robert DeNiro and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a very funny film which flows effortlessly into some dramatic moments. But very few want to talk about the social implications of it.Philip Seymour Hoffman is a female impersonator who lives in the same apartment building as Robert DeNiro, a retired policeman who works as a security guard. During a robbery of a drug dealer, one of Hoffman's fellow drag performers is killed and DeNiro suffers a stroke trying to prevent the crime. The drug dealers can't exactly go to the police with their story, but they have other methods of dealing with transgressors.DeNiro and Hoffman have nothing in common at all and usually confine any conversations they have with some usual shouted epithets. But DeNiro's doctor advises singing lessons as a form of speech therapy and he goes to Hoffman. They develop an unusual friendship.More unusual because it turns out that Hoffman has the stolen loot. And why Hoffman is keeping it is a matter of life and quality thereof.Hoffman is not dressing in drag for effect or to make money as a performer. Hoffman's real drag is the body parts God gave him because they don't match what's inside. Hoffman is a transgendered soul and the cost of a sex change operation is more than he could earn in a few lifetimes.Here in America our insurance companies amazingly regard a sex change as cosmetic surgery. Scary idea, but true. Recently I had some talks with a transgender person from the United Kingdom. There the debate is whether their socialized medicine system should be paying for the sex change. Either way it is frightening situation that Hoffman is put in with all that cash suddenly in his possession and the chance of matching heart and soul to body can be realized.Especially after just winning an Oscar for Capote, Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't worried about getting cast in gay roles. From the lovestruck Scotty G in Boogie Nights, to Flawless, and now to Capote, Hoffman's making one great career for himself going gay. But all three of those parts show an astonishing range and a courageous player willing to accept and master challenging roles.Of course Robert DeNiro is great, he's never anything else. And he's back in the world of lower Manhattan that he knows so well. His character turns out to be a person of great character and more than just physical strength.Flawless is a film that will make you laugh and cry, but even more important will make you think.