If the Lifetime channel ever starts rewriting its female-centric "inspired by true events" tearjerkers with gay characters, "Any Day Now" will fit right in. This overwrought melodrama centers on Rudy (Alan Cumming), an abrasive drag-queen performer who discovers Marco (Isaac Leyva), a 12-year-old kid with Down syndrome, abandoned by his junkie mom (Jamie Anne Allman) in the apartment next door. Rudy and his new boyfriend, Paul (Garret Dillahunt), a closeted lawyer in the D.A.'s office, vow to take care of Marco — and their efforts to get permanent custody lead them to a court battle that, given 1979 law regarding homosexuals, they can't win. Director Travis Fine, rewriting a long-dormant script by George Arthur Bloom, hits all the knee-jerk emotional spots with sledgehammer subtlety. What raises "Any Day Now" above the merely cornball is Cumming's full-throated performance as the outlandish, but no less loving, Rudy.

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'Any Day Now'

Opens Friday, Dec. 21, at the Tower Theatre; rated R for sexual content and some drug use; 97 minutes.