Adam Sandler says there's a moral to his new movie, in which he plays a heterosexual fireman who pretends to be gay.

"This movie says there's nothing wrong with being gay. There's just something wrong with being gay for Kevin James," Sandler told Newsweek magazine. James, star of the CBS comedy "The King of Queens," and Sandler portray firemen pretending to be a gay couple to receive domestic partnership benefits. The film, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," is scheduled to be released July 20.

Made by straight people for straight people, this lowbrow comedy about super-butch firemen (Sandler and Kevin James) faking a gay marriage is a very queer landmark indeed. No joke, the bar has been raised, not least on the potential of "don't drop the soap" routines.

Somewhere in the cafeteria at GLAAD headquarters, girlfriend is about to choke on her quiche, but here goes: Tremendously savvy in its stupid way, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is as eloquent as Brokeback Mountain, and even more radical. "The gay cowboy movie" liberated desires latent in the classic western, and made them palpable (and palatable) by channeling them into the strictures of another genre, romantic tragedy.

As you've probably guessed from the TV commercials, or even just the billboards, ''I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry'' is a one-joke movie - and that joke might have seemed edgy back in 1977, when Billy Crystal was playing a gay man on ''Soap.''

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Director Dennis Dugan (''Happy Gilmore,'' ''Big Daddy,'' say no more) wants to have it both ways but never gets either right. It might seem offensive if it weren't so lame.

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The most baffling part of all is that Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, the Oscar-winning ''Sideways'' writers, are credited with having spruced up the script written a decade ago by Barry Fanaro (''Men in Black II,'' ''Kingpin''). You'd never know that anyone capable of creating rich, full characters - characters with hearts and brains - had anything to do with this.

In the line of duty for my job as a professional watcher of movies, I saw “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” last night. And for all my fellow gays out there who were put off by the trailer — [...] I can officially tell you that it’s not an anti-gay movie. It is, in fact, so cutely rah-rah-gays-rah it makes “Hairspray” seem like it was created by a think-tank of bigots. Everyone learns a lesson about how it’s wrong to say that six-letter (or three-letter, depending on your preferred spelling) F-word that Ann Coulter likes to toss around, and then there’s lots of warm hugs for everyone.

This type of film, though, is still relatively new on the mainstream landscape. Because while gay filmmakers have been making gay-themed films for a while now, movies that have moved past the whole “I am not an animal! I am a human being! I need the approval of Adam Sandler!” thing, it turns out that — surprise — lots of heterosexuals still seem to need reminding that gays deserve simple common decency and respect.

MEXICO CITY - Adam Sandler says he would like to work alongside gay-rights groups after starring in "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry."

Sandler, who was in Mexico with co-star Kevin James to promote the film's opening in theaters here, told a news conference: "If I can help anybody in any way, I certainly would."

But the 41-year-old actor-comedian stopped short of calling himself a potential gay icon.

"I don't think that's gonna happen, dude, certainly not," Sandler said. "If I was a gay man, I wouldn't want me to represent" the gay community.