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On The Sea (UK)

By Golu
This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
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Save Me

By Golu
Now this one was definitely a different film. Whether it was good or bad is debatable and we will talk later about that but merging gay and religion together has not been done too often. When Mark a regular sex and drug addict hit rock bottom (after having attempted suicide), his brother checks him into a christian retreat center in New Mexico. Its run by a couple Ted and Gayle. They have 6 another inmates who came there as homosexuals and with the love of Christ and dedication, they were trying to get over that. Mark starts to bond well with Scott in the center. Ted sees this as normal male healthy bonding (even the 2 men dont think anything about it) but Gayle is always uncomfortable with the closeness of the two men. The reason we find later is that Gayle had lost her 17 year old son who was gay. She sees her son in Mark and wants to cure him. Scott and Mark question about their relationship after Scott's father dies and tells him that Scott is going to hell. Scott is devastated and realizes that the only reason he was in center was for his father and now it would be for Mark. Mark reciprocates but he thinks religion is changing him as well. Scott decided that he cannot lie anymore . He is gay and he accepts it. Gayle asks him to leave the center. Mark refuses to go with him. One night when Mark's room mate tries to commit suicide is when Mark realizes that happiness can be between a man and a woman or between 2 men. Nowhere in Bible does Jesus say that homosexuality is a sin. Scott comes to meet everyone when he decided to leave the town. Thats when Mark decided that he really loves him and goes with him. Ted and Gayle continue with their journey of religious healing for homosexuals. It was good to see Mark other than his Strachey persona. Scott as usual is hot. They made a good couple. The good thing about this movie was there was no unnecessary sex or nude scene. They tried to make the film as realistic and as commercial as possible for universal viewing. I Can see why some people might not like the film because of its slow pace and some religious preaching but I guess is about time we started exploring different themes within gay genre. Its not a bad film. Just try to keep up with the slow pace. (6/10)
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Comments

Anonymous said…
I enjoyed this one. I dont own it but the dude I work with who borrowed Food of Love from me bought this one and allowed me to watch it. I wished we could force every Pastor in my state to have to watch this maybe with his family in the room with him. Forgive me I am bad with names and I dont have the movie here to look at to ues as a study guide but... The guy who he had to room with who had never felt love the sorta bigger dude I wanted him to at least get into bed with someone but I guess thats just because he reminded me much of myself in lots of ways. At the end when the lady is talking to the Pastor and he offers the money I must have got lost... What was that all about? Did she suddenly see love is universal and has no limits or bounds? Thanks for any help with this.
June 20, 2010 at 11:17 AM
ILHiker said…
I watched this tonight--I've known about it for many years and it's been on amazon prime for quite awhile, it just never appealed for whatever reason. I just flipped it on for background while I was doing other things. It surprised me. It didn't beatify the lead character nor demonize the people running the conversion camp, both of which would not be unusual choices. I have always enjoyed Chad Allen's acting. Though some very dramatic things happen in the course of the movie I didn't find it deeply moving, but I did find it interesting. I think the husband understanding that it was addiction that was the problem and not being gay was the point on which everything rotated. I also rewatched Benjamin on prime today. It's a quirky romance nothing like this movie, though both don't go to the obvious places.
August 28, 2022 at 9:24 PM
Golu said…
I actually remember quite liking this film long time back because I found it had something new to offer. But I am also sure that if I saw it today, I would probably end up finding multiple flaws. Cant believe that I saw this film just a couple of years after I started writing this blog. How time flies !!
August 29, 2022 at 11:15 AM
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