What happens when a sassy drag queen (Alan Cumming) and a buttoned up lawyer (Garret Dillahunt) seek to gain custody of a young man (Isaac Leyva) with Down syndrome who has been abandoned by his drug-addicted mother? Director Travis Fine, who co-penned the script with George Arthur Bloom, surely assumed Any Day Now was simply following a standard blueprint, giving audiences exactly what they expected. But the oh-so sneaky Cumming plays Rudy, the flam-glam queen with the heart of gold, and it doesn’t take long to realize that, as a performer, Cumming shares the same openness and generosity of spirit as his character and refuses to dominate the frame.

He makes ample room for Dillahunt and Leyva, which would appear to be more challenging with a first-time performer like Leyva, but there’s an easy rapport between Cumming and the newbie. He wants the audience to see and feel this story as a coming together of this loving family, which the more conventional societal forces can’t appreciate. But, in the end, Any Day Now really is all about Rudy (and by extension, Cumming). But Rudy is the caged bird that ends up singing the blues. Fortunately, thanks to Cumming, he does so in perfect key. (R) Grade: B-