Stonewall

Roland Emmerich’s latest disaster movie wasn’t intended to be that way. The filmmaker known for Hollywood blockbusters such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow eschews his usual explosions and visual effects in Stonewall, which aspires to be a heartfelt coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the gay-rights movement in New York during the late 1960s.

While such a change of pace is noble, the result doesn’t provide sufficient historical context into the political struggle leading up to the Stonewall riots, nor does its character-based approach yield much emotional resonance.

The film tends to shove its more compelling personalities into the background in favor of focusing on Danny (Jeremy Irvine), a disillusioned former high school football star who arrives in New York after fleeing his small town filled with bigotry and disapproving parents.

He winds up on Christopher Street in Manhattan, which in 1969 was the hub for homeless drag queens, male prostitutes, and other effeminate gay men who couldn’t get jobs because of their sexuality. A handful of the eccentric locals including Ray (Jonny Beauchamp) take the impressionable Danny under their wing.

Struggling to keep his Ivy League dreams afloat, Danny befriends Trevor (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who encourages him to get involved with the Mattachine Society, a gay-rights movement trying legal methods to overturn laws. But tensions between the locals and the police escalate more quickly, putting Danny and his friends at the forefront of late-night violence in front of the titular nightclub.

The screenplay by Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance of Fire) keeps some of the real-life figures in the Stonewall story on the periphery, including corrupt club owner Ed Murphy (Ron Perlman), the police deputy who executed the raids (Matt Craven), and prominent protester Frank Kameny (Arthur Holden). The grassroots activists at its center are fictionalized composites that feel more stereotypical than authentic.

Emmerich’s film lacks subtlety yet is somewhat evocative in its portrayal of its time and place, even if the climactic riots themselves get lost in the shuffle — reduced to little more than a montage.

Unfortunately, so does their influence on LGBT rights and Gay Pride marches around the country in the subsequent years. Where the social impact of the riots is lasting, the impact of the movie is negligible.

Rated R, 129 minutes.