Playing It Straight

Robert Downey is known for his movies’ offbeat subject matter, but with his latest dark comedy--”Too Much Sun”--he admits: “I’ve learned a lot from this one.”

Currently on the festival circuit, the CineTel Films production has the late Howard Duff as a dying millionaire whose gay son (played by Eric Idle) and lesbian daughter (Andrea Martin) will inherit a fortune only if they produce heirs within a year of Dad’s death. It turns out that both have grown kids (Robert Downey Jr., Ralph Macchio) from one-night stands during their heterosexual pasts, whom a less-than-saintly priest hopes to keep under wraps so his church will inherit the money.

The writer-director feels it won’t offend: “We played straight--in a way.”

Scenes involving Idle, Martin and their lovers (Leo Rossi, co-writer Laura Ernst), Downey says, show “lots of tender stuff between them. We don’t treat them any differently than other couples, heterosexual or otherwise. We don’t put them down at all.”

Some insensitive material was eliminated, he adds, and the AIDS issue is dealt with directly. In one sexual situation, gay characters display medical cards indicating their HIV-negative status.

“(The AIDS issue) was uncomfortable,” Downey admits. “But you had to deal with it, or the film wouldn’t have worked.”