7 Minutes (French)

A lot of gay themed films have touched upon the topic of  drugs and chemicals in the community. This film takes it to the next level and tries to give an insight in to the club, party, drugs and sex aspects of the gay community. Apparently it is inspired from a true life incident that happened to one of the director's friend.

Maxime and Kevin are a couple enjoying time in a hotel room indulging in sex and drugs, mostly G. Because of an overdose Kevin dies and seven minutes later Maxime also dies (probably suicide). Maxime's father Jean is a policeman, who wants to find out what happened in the night and why was there a gap of 7 minutes between the two deaths. In an event organized by Maxime's friends, he finds out about this gay club BISOU where Maxime used to go. The DJ of the club, a young man Fabien takes a liking for the father not knowing who exactly he is. Jean slowly discovers how the drugs and sex free flow in that environment and how even though most people were very aware of the dangers involved but they still do it. Fabien and Jean go on a few dates where Jean pretends to be a writer to know more about drugs. Jean even goes to the extent of having sex with Fabien to find out the secret behind his son's death but all he can see is the overflow of drugs everywhere. Eventually Jean realizes that it's hard to say whether his son died of an overdose or on purpose but he clearly knew what he was getting into. Perhaps it's time to move on from his son's death and not hold on to it.

I read somewhere that one of the things the director of the film wanted to show was some people who do drugs don’t see the dangers of taking them – they don’t consider themselves drug users or addicts, they think it’s a game, something fun to do. But, in the end, lots of people die, and people don’t want to talk about it. I think that message became very very clear in the film when you see so many guys using drugs but also sort of brushing the issue aside. But in the process of doing so, I also feel that in the process the makers probably hurt the community more by giving the impression that most gays do just drugs and sex and they don't know anything beyond that. I mean, there was no normality in the people they put on screen. Every single gay was a drug addict and into club scene which we all know is NOT true at all. Also, I understand that as a father Jean is grieving and wants to understand what his son's life was like, but I really can't imagine someone going to the lengths that he did. Pretending to be curious and dates is very different from having sex with a man and getting fucked, just to find out what the truth behind the whole clubbing and drug scene is, especially the cons of drug G. He is a policeman and I am sure he has means to get the truth out behind his son's death. And then, on top of that, there is no proper ending. There is no closure. He sees Fabien get into Maxime's home, realizing that he was a true friend and then that's it. I mean... come on. Coming to performances, every one does a good job but I think the script is a big letdown. I am still not sure what was the eventual point of the film. Was it the dangers of drugs? We all know that it's an issue, but then as a film maker you probably want to make a statement about it that it's not healthy or good or anything. Just making audience aware of the drugs scene in gay community in not achieving anything at all. It may sound harsh, but I feel its irresponsible to make such a film without taking a stand.

Interesting topic of use of drugs, but half baked script and a very anti-climax ruins the film. Half way through the film, I was expecting so much more, because it started off well. (4.5/10)