Before I say anything else, I'd better admit that I saw this film in a dubbed-into-French version. Maybe... just maybe... that is the reason this seems to be so flat to me... but I would not want to spend time watching it again - in the original version or any other.
For a Canadian film that some people here have touted as being better than the typical Hollywood junk and a "real family" film to boot - I am wondering if we saw the same film.
First of all, the entire film is predictable from beginning to end. There is NOTHING here that we haven't seen before, done better. Second - it looks and feels more like a television series comedy rather than a real film... all that's missing is the laugh-track (which maybe would have been a good idea, as I saw NOTHING in this film that was even mildly funny...) Third, this is supposedly a "gay-positive" story... yet uses every single cliché imaginable. The kid wears makeup, has a feather boa, and just generally comes across as the most flaming queen since Divine. I'm sorry, but no kid that I have ever known had EVERY cliché down pat. Also, how many gay men who are afraid to let ANYONE know they are gay, would be living with another guy openly in a committed relationship?? You have to have gone through a fair amount of gay-consciousness to allow that to happen... Oh, and the kiss between the two men at the end of the film was the most perfunctory, sexless, emotionless, useless kiss between two guys that I have ever seen on film.
There is NOTHING in this film that is even mildly believable. The dialogue sounds pat and scripted, not lived or realistically felt. The camera work is adequate, but certainly not memorable. Of all the Canadian films I have seen over the years, this one is the most tired, boring, badly scripted piece of crap I have ever seen.
If anyone on this site wants to see truly GOOD Canadian writing and directing, go see C.R.A.Z.Y - a French Canadian film with true heart, honest laughs, a REAL sense of family, and a much better representation of anything gay.
For a Canadian film that some people here have touted as being better than the typical Hollywood junk and a "real family" film to boot - I am wondering if we saw the same film.
First of all, the entire film is predictable from beginning to end. There is NOTHING here that we haven't seen before, done better. Second - it looks and feels more like a television series comedy rather than a real film... all that's missing is the laugh-track (which maybe would have been a good idea, as I saw NOTHING in this film that was even mildly funny...) Third, this is supposedly a "gay-positive" story... yet uses every single cliché imaginable. The kid wears makeup, has a feather boa, and just generally comes across as the most flaming queen since Divine. I'm sorry, but no kid that I have ever known had EVERY cliché down pat. Also, how many gay men who are afraid to let ANYONE know they are gay, would be living with another guy openly in a committed relationship?? You have to have gone through a fair amount of gay-consciousness to allow that to happen... Oh, and the kiss between the two men at the end of the film was the most perfunctory, sexless, emotionless, useless kiss between two guys that I have ever seen on film.
There is NOTHING in this film that is even mildly believable. The dialogue sounds pat and scripted, not lived or realistically felt. The camera work is adequate, but certainly not memorable. Of all the Canadian films I have seen over the years, this one is the most tired, boring, badly scripted piece of crap I have ever seen.
If anyone on this site wants to see truly GOOD Canadian writing and directing, go see C.R.A.Z.Y - a French Canadian film with true heart, honest laughs, a REAL sense of family, and a much better representation of anything gay.