IN a nutshell, the Canadian-Italian son of immigrants comes out of the closet.

The traditionalist parents are shocked, scandalised, acquiring the bug eyes of King Charles spaniels, throwing their rotund arms in the air as melodramatically as Pavarotti, and saying Mamma Mia at every opportunity.

"There is no fate worse than being gay and Italian," laments narrator Angelo (Luke Kirby), introducing his predicament on setting up home with his policeman lover.

Stereotypes abound in Emile Gaudreault's cheery and cheesy "comedy, Italian-style", a kitsch confection that revels in Latin temperaments, over-bearing mamas, family squabbles and dinner-table set-pieces.

The parents, Paul Sorvino and Ginette Reno, go through the standard repertoire of wild gesticulations in a surfeit of parental guilt and hysteria as they disown their son. All the while, the initially diffident Angelo opens himself to the full Montreal gay experience.

This is a feel-good sitcom drama as loud and brash as the gay fashions, floating upwards on a frothy pursuit of obvious and easy laughs. Perish the thought but it makes its not-so-distant cousin, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, look subtle. Gaudy Gaudreault serves too much cappuccino, not enough espresso.

Updated: 15:54 Thursday, October 07, 2004