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...
Marc and Fred are a married gay couple returning to a bed-and-breakfast after they won a court battle exactly a year ago against Josh, the owner of the establishment who is too religious to accept queers. There is an obvious tension when they check in and do not get a very warm welcome. Josh's teenage son Paul confides in Fred that he is gay and he has to deal with lot of issues because of his homophobic father. Tensions get higher when a mysterious Russian comes to B&B. Marc thinks he is gay but Fred believes that Josh has invited him for gay bashing. Meanwhile somehow Paul and the Russian decide to go out for the night at gay cruising park and now Fred is worried about the boys safety. In moments of heat, its not very clear if Russian was going to attack or not, but an argument leads to Paul killing the man. Now a cat and mouse game start where Paul tries to put the blame on Fred and the coupe try their best to get out of the mess. Some contrived scenes follow and eventually Josh takes the blame of killing the man and goes to jail. A year later the gay couple return to find Paul now running the B&B and now supposedly in a straight relationship with a woman because his father showed him the path of righteousness.
Its still not very clear to me whether the Russian was actually someone who harmed people or someone who was just a voyeur. The second half of the film felt very complicated and I was unable to comprehend a lot of scenes. Whatever be the case, the other big problem I had t he film was I wasn't able to connect to any of the characters. Be it Marc and Fred, who wanted their right to stay in a B&B, but clearly Marc was a dickhead who wasn't even bothered about the safety of his husband. All he cared of was being right and having the last word. He was so annoying that I couldn't understand why a reasonable man like Fred would be with him. Then , its difficult to understand how did Paul and the Russian make a plan to meet when he didn't even speak english. It was so random. And then finally when Josh was so against the gay couple, why would he hand himself over to the police for his son's crime instead of maybe accusing the gay couple. A lot of actions didn't make much sense to me in the film. The one thing I got from the film was how it was all about Marc's ego. Maybe he wanted to fight for his rights but there are ways to do it without being a dickhead, but then thats my personal opinion. All the actors thankfully did a good job at acting. You can tell they are good actors but lack of character development constrained my liking for any of them.
The film wasn't terrible but wasn't anything much to talk about. If you are looking for something that is not stereotypical gay, go for this film. It does offer something new. Sadly, the new is not that good. (4/10)
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