LIFE hasn’t done any favours for 14-year-old Marco (Isaac Leyva). His mother (Jamie Anne Allman) is a junkie sex-worker servicing clients in a run-down apartment. Marco has no friends. Marco has Down syndrome.

Along the hall, Rudy (Alan Cumming) faces eviction for unpaid rent. Rudy earns a pittance as a member of a cross-dressing trio performing karaoke in a gay bar.

In the local DA’s office, Paul (Garret Dillahunt) is having difficulty coming out. He and Rudy strike up an acquaintance. When Rudy finds Marco wandering the neighbourhood after his mother’s client ejects him from the apartment, he takes him in and gives him shelter. Rudy needs legal advice. His new lover provides it.

Examining attitudes toward gay men in a parenting role, writer/director Travis Fine’s film is perceptive, uncompromising and heart-warming. And frustrating, because while Rudy and Paul conduct their romantic lives quite separately from that shared role, the DA’s office presents a persuasive argument that Marco is at risk if it continues.

The forensic dispute before Judge Myerson (Frances Fisher) between Paul, now dismissed from the DA’s office, black attorney Lonnie (Don Franklin) whom Paul engages to plead his case, and prosecutor Lambert (Gregg Henry), forms the film’s main body. It’s uncomfortable and frustrating, thereby making the film all the more rewarding.

At Palace Electric