This movie is very well-done, and you immediately care about the main characters. Father and son stories are usually a drag ("Nothing in Common"), but not this one. A couple of scenes will break your heart; I cried like a baby at one point. It is especially worthwhile if you are gay, and discovered that about yourself as a child.
sydney, australia australia based on play or musical breaking the fourth wall father son relationship gay theme
Plot summary
A widowed father has to deal with two complex issues: while he is searching for "Miss Right," his son, who is in his 20s and gay, is searching for "Mr. Right."
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
May 23, 2016 at 03:20 PM
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If it were a true story it could not be sadder
A comedy, one more, in this life that is so little comic indeed. We start with the promise of a revolution coming through and we end with a request or piece of advice that you better be home soon, and in between, love, romance, tragedy and a lot of empathy and misery with a little bit of happiness sprinkled on top, at times angry happiness because of the silly decision you took and it broke the potential happy development you were hoping for and looking forward to getting on a silver platter. You just got Saint John the Baptist's head.
We are dealing here with grown up men and women all in strange situations. A young gay man living with his parents and the father behaves as if he did not know and he turns ugly when it becomes news stuff on TV. Another gay man living with his widower of a father who is not gay but accepts his son the way he is though he is invasive, maybe an intrusive voyeur, and in a way blocks his son's way to happiness.
That same man gets in touch with a lady through some meeting club and the two fall for one another but the night when things were going to go through, New Year's Eve, at his place, the son being out for his own fun, she comes across some gay magazines and cannot accept the fact that she had not been told before, and if she had it would not have changed anything because she just does not want to go across this line.
Just minutes after she drove off, when the fireworks start celebrating the New Year, he has a savage and wild heart attack or stroke and he will remain paralyzed on one side and without the capability to speak any more. In other words she broke his heart and that is not a metaphor, she literally did break his heart, boom.
That is sad, very sad, but it is a comedy, so there must be a happy ending and life will take care of some haphazard meeting of the two young men and then life will be on tracks again. But gosh it is not easy to build your own happiness when you are not a photocopy of the standard middle of the way unoriginal model imposed by ethical and moral norms in our society, even when things have changed legally. Between the law and reality there is more than a simple Strait of Malacca: there are thousands of hostile pirates with weapons everywhere up over their heads ready to raid your life to prevent you from being happy.
Enjoy the details.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
A little gem of a film
A very surprisingly wonderful film. I can't believe a film like this was so popular in Australia in 1994. I'm also annoyed that films like this don't get more exposure in the US. I liked it very much and Russell Crowe's performance was really touching. He really projected a sincerity that is rare in film, and even more rare in gay themed cinema. I also liked the father's character and the "reasoning" he presented - too bad all parents can't think that way. I thought the actors speaking to the audience worked, flowed very naturally, and was not overdone. With so much junk coming out of Hollywood, nice indie films like this are a welcome reprieve.