film: the opposite of sex (18)

There are many reasons to see writer-turned-director Don Roos's defiantly liberal sex comedy, but none more so than Christina Ricci (above). She comes of age with a scene-stealing performance as Dedee, a voluptuous wellspring of political incorrectness, who gate-crashes her gay half- brother's life and then runs off with his dim lover - having convinced him that he is both bi-sexual and the father of her unborn baby.

Dedee mercilessly rides roughshod over numerous homosexual sensitivities (she also tells women in the audience how to spot whether their date's a closet case) in her gleefully scornful voice-over, yet Roos's sharp film is anything but intolerant. On the contrary, its subversive reinterpretation of family values is liberating, humane, and above all, refreshingly inclusive. Right-wingers will hate it.

On general release