Un Bacio (Italian) [One Kiss]

A beautiful and touching film, although not-necessarily a centrally gay-themed one. The film deals with issues of friendship, acceptance, rebel, self-confidence. Equal focus is given on all three primary characters in the film. More than anything it is about friendship and how one kiss could change the lives of friends.

Slowly, three of our primary characters are introduced to us. Lorenoz is new to town. He is outgoing, exuberant, very gay and likeable (if you want to). He has been adopted by very liberal parents and brought to town. Parents are ready to fight with school authorities if they have to, to make sure Lorenzo is comfortable with who he is. He becomes real close friends with Blu, daughter of hippy parents. She has been labelled as rebel and slut because of an infamous incident where she slept with her bf and three other friends of him. She gets called names in school, so she prefers to be by herself. And finally we have Antonio, a gorgeous young boy and basketball star but considered very stupid by most of his classmates. His brother died in an accident few years ago who used to be the poster child for his family and school both. So now Antonio, spends much of his time talking to the ghost of his brother. The three of them become really close and star taking fun revenge back on their classmates. All is fun and good till we realize that slowly both Blu and Lorenzo start liking Antonio. Since Lorenzo is co confident of himself, he goes ahead and kisses Antonio and that one incident just changes the equation between the three of them. Things get worse, although Lorenzo and Blu still occasionally hang out. Crazy things happen when hatred completely takes over. Antonio kills Lorenzo in a fit of anger and things will never be same again. Film ends with showing a scenario, if Antonio had reacted differently on the kiss that Lorenzo gave him; how things would have been much different and happier.

There are a lot of things that I liked about this film. The film has very interesting animations, songs and dancing; especially when Lorenzo goes into this zone where he ignores the real world and imagines living in this cool place. All the dance routines were pretty darn good. The story, though simple, is told in a very likeable manner. I liked the humour and for a change Lorenzo’s character was shown as a very strong character. He is gay but not apologetic and not afraid to get back to anyone who dares to point a finger at him. So refreshing and nice. Also, the storyline of Blu was quite important. How only a year later, she realizes that actually she was not being a slut but instead she was drugged and raped and all this while she had been blaming herself. Some of my favourite moments include when Lorenzo’s adopted parents argue with the school to let Lorenzo be himself. Hats off to those parents and wonderful writing of those characters. In fact, the acting throughout is quite raw & natural and this is the reason that its emotional impact is quite high.

It is a simple story of love, identity & friendship with a perfect balance of comedy, music and drama. (7.5/10)