This one falls into that darker corner of gay cinema. There was real potential buried in here, but the execution feels so flat that at points it plays out more like a filmed stage play than an actual movie. It's a dark psychological drama built around a street hustler confessing to a brutal, confusing murder of his own lover. Black and white flashback sequences do a solid job laying out the details of what happened, but the real focus stays on the dialogue and the writing itself. Right at the start, a young hustler has already killed his male lover Claude. Three days go by before he calls the police to turn himself in for the murder. But instead of just reporting it somewhere ordinary, he actually summons the police and the local press directly into a judge's private chambers. Yves has keys to the place, which tracks given what he does for a living, but having the press waiting right outside makes the whole scene look like some elaborate blackmail scheme against the judge. The ...
Set in early 2000's, this film shows the time when gay marriage or adoption for gay couples was still not legal in Australia. Steven and Alex are a couple but since Steven is a TV show host, he has to live a closeted life. But he goes around having meaningful sex with random strangers and is almost always horny. On the other hand, Alex wants more from the relationship and expand their family. Steven always ignores this but when Alex asks their architect to include a nursery in their new beach home which is being built, Steven sees the seriousness. But since they are legally not a couple, their chances of legally adopting. Through an ad, they meet a pregnant girl Nerine, who after a series of meetings decides to give them her baby for a lot of money. Life is gonna change. Alex is prepared for it but it takes time for Steven to enjoy being a father. But Nerine comes back with a drug addict boyfriend demanding her kid back and literally steals back the baby. Alex and Steven's life falls apart. To make matters worse, a sex video of Steven with his intern is made public and his career goes down the drain. Thankfully Nerine comes to senses and realizes that his drug addict boyfriend is just an abuser and calls back Alex and Steve to take the baby back alongwith her. Steven decides to change his direction in life and starts championing for gay marriage.
Firstly, this film came out in 2015 and somehow connecting with the subject matter of early 2000's made me hard for m to relate to the subject. The whole process of getting a child for adoption seems believable then, but not when you watch it today. And what about surrogacy? I mean a plenty of options have always been available, especially when you have a lot of money to spend. And then I felt that a couple of sex scenes were forced. Agreed, that some of them were due to emotional distress but I felt that they were not really needed to be so explicit. The relationship between Steve and Alex is not very clear to me. They dont seem very compatible. Alex is not happy but he clearly stays in it. Steven is happy with his sexual escapades, so why try to be in a relationship! Alex exerts considerable pressure on Steve which appears to be the result of his own insecurity. I was hoping that the film would be focussed more on pros and cons of raising a child as a gay couple and how parenthood affects their relationship. But it was just a hope.
The actors were good looking and acted well and the story had potential but the fact that it failed me as an audience to emotionally connect with the leads, is a problem IMO. (5/10)
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