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...
The film follows three parallel tracks set between Christmas day and New Years. We have a married couple Cal & Laslo. They live happily for many years and cannot fathom the fact that all their friends are going the family way adopting kids. Imagine their surprise when Cal’s nephew shows up unannounced at their doorstep after he gets kicked out from his home by his mother for being gay. Even though unprepared, they very sportingly take on their new responsibility of caregivers and family to their nephew. Second story is about room mates Julian and Dylan. Since Julian travels a lot for work, Dylan has been secretly renting out his room to make extra cash. On Christmas, Julian comes back early and is horrified to find the truth. They are both forced to share Dylan’s room and bed which soon becomes odd because Julian has had a crush on his room mate for past 2 years and is now forced to face his demons. And finally we have Sid, who hooks up with Gray as a random sex hookup for Christmas day but they find a lot in common with each other over the holiday period. There is instant connection, & chemistry between them. They share each other’s secrets and spend the holidays together naked. All these people come together as a family to celebrate new years where a happy ending follows for everyone.
Although the prime directive of the film is to show that families are important for gay men and how we make our own family; that doesn’t come out very clearly. The only connecting factor among the three stories in the end is when they all attend the same party, so the whole idea feels a bit hollow. Having said that, the film is funny in bits and parts especially when the nephew shows up and the whole interaction between the trio is funny and somewhat natural. All the other actors sadly are not good performers. Dylan, especially, is really bad. he so called surprises and twists just happen suddenly. There is no build-up or a satisfactory conclusion. IS the film supposed to be comedy or a romantic comedy or a film with twists; you will never know. As mentioned before, the short length of the film is definitely a saving grace.
I have seen much worse, low production crap gay cinema. This is still much better than the rest but compared to some good cinema out there, the film will still rank quite low in my ratings. Not a disaster but nothing to rave about either. (3.5/10)
Comments
If the story had revolved around a little younger Black simply being "dropped off to spend a summer with Unlce Cal.." would have been a better premise since the two unsuspecting dads end up being really hypocritical when it comes to the issue of Blake and teenage sex.