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After his messy divorce, Todd (Jonathan Bray) decides he’s been moping around long enough—and he agrees to meet a girl from the online dating site that his freeloading brother, Barry (Jonathan Silverman), signed him up for. Todd’s uncomfortable when he discovers that the coffee shop where he’s supposed to meet his date is mostly populated by gay men—and it doesn’t help that his date is late, and he’s left fighting for a table with one of the shop’s gay patrons. After the two agree to share the table until their blind dates arrive, they start talking, and Todd is mortified to discover that the man at his table is Kelly (Wilson Cruz), his date. To his surprise, though, they hit it off—and the two film buffs decide to catch a movie together.
To play a joke on Barry—who (whether intentionally or not) signed him up for the men-seeking-men site—Todd brings Kelly home after the movie. Barry freaks out, calls their mother to break the news that her son is gay, and immediately packs his bags and moves out of Todd’s house. The next day, Todd’s mother (Sally Kirkland) shows up, somewhat stunned—but supportive of her newly gay son nonetheless. As Todd tries to convince his mother that he’s not gay, his friendship with Kelly grows—and it’s not long until Todd’s gay coworker, Clayton (Jason Stuart), sees Todd and Kelly at a movie together, and the rumors begin to fly.
Soon, everyone’s under the impression that Todd’s gay—and they seem so willing to believe the rumors that Todd begins to wonder if maybe he is gay.
Coffee Date is a light and clever comedy about sexual orientation—and sexual confusion. It starts off a little shaky, with an awkward coffee shop scene (and I began to wonder just how long they’d drag out the whole “I’m waiting for my date” thing, when it was pretty obvious what was going on). But once things get moving, the story smoothes out, and it’s just fun to watch. It’s funny without being too outrageous, and it’s cute without being sickening. It’s actually quite bit like Kissing Jessica Stein—only a little sillier.
Though the characters are, at times, a bit too stereotypical—with most of the gay characters fitting neatly into the over-the-top gay male clichés—they’re likeable anyway (with the exception of Silverman’s Barry, who’s painfully overdone—especially toward the movie’s end). Cruz, especially, is adorable as Kelly—so adorable, in fact, that you’ll most likely find yourself hoping that Todd really is gay, just so he can end up with Kelly.
Perhaps the best thing about Coffee Date, however, is its ending. Instead of going the cliché route, it ends just as it should—and, in the process, the characters (and even the viewers) learn a little bit about understanding themselves and accepting others.
