This one feels like it was made more for eye candy than anything else. The film is almost 15 years old now, so it might've been one of the earlier ones to touch on a throuple, or at least hint at it. It runs about 75 minutes, which makes it an easy sit, but with tighter editing and fewer repetitive scenes, it could've been a crisp little short film. Rene runs the family business to support his sick grandmother, while his aunt, who looks after her, keeps trying to match him up with different women so he'll finally settle down. The thing is, Rene's gay, and he's in love with his driver. He's way too shy and closed off to ever say it out loud, but one weekend he loosens up on a seaside trip with the guy he's crazy about. That night, after a lot of drinking, they sleep together and Rene finally admits how he feels. Still, he knows the driver has a long term partner he can't leave. Once Rene's had enough, he heads to the driver's house planning to tal...
The film starts with Margaret visiting Darby, club owner, who is having an affair with her 17 year old son Beau, to warn him to stay away from her son. She finds this out because her son was in an accident earlier with a drunk Beau on his side. But evil Darby and Beau in his spell. He meets Beau near his place at night but ends up attacking him. When Beau is running away, Darby slips and dies unknown to Beau. The next morning Margaret finds the body and thinks her son did something, so she dumps the body in the cove in river. Unfortunately police finds the body. Around same time, a young man Alec visits Margaret and shows him a video of Darby and Beau having sex and demands 50k USD and gives her a day. He tries her level best, while keeping her family together (Her husband isa pilot in navy and is out most time) but her life is spiraling out of control. Alek sees all this and has a change of heart. But Alec's partner will have none of it. When the partner goes to extract money from Margaret, Alec shows up and in a fight Alec's partner ends up getting dead. Alec pleads Margaret to go back to her normal life.
One night that stands out is that while Margaret is going through the most painful few days, her son Beau has no idea what is happening around her and what kind of stress she is dealing with. The film's subject is thriller but the film's direction has an eerie calmness to it. Tilda Swinson as Margaret is amazing. Until these events, the closest she had come to falling apart was when she tried to manage her three children's after-school activities while dealing with her sick father-in-law. The strain of forcing herself to take step after step to bring things to an end begins to exact its toll, because the predicament never ends. Gay aspect of the film is there to create the basis of the story, but the film has nothing more to do with it. Hence, I was grappling whether I should even review this film on my blog, but here we are! What surprised me was Alec's sudden change of heart. Was he falling for Margaret or something else? I am not sure. The film is good for the lead's performance and is an overall movie. Do not expect this to be a LGBTQ themed movie (as per my criteria normally for my blog). (5.5/10)
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