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 two leads here are Donovan and Kaden. Kaden is the openly gay, twink-coded student body president, and Donovan is your textbook straight macho quarterback. Kaden has a thing for Donovan, but Donovan treats him just like most of the school does, which is to say he bullies and mocks him. Things escalate during budget planning when Kaden does not allocate enough funds to the football team, which only makes the bullying worse. When a prank Kaden pulls backfires, he ends up assigned as the football team's water boy as punishment. This is where Donovan starts secretly flirting with him while still acting like he does not exist in public. They eventually kiss and Donovan comes clean that he cannot afford to be seen with another guy because of what it would do to his future, but he does at least start stepping in to stop others from bullying Kaden. Kaden is into the attention but not blind to the fact that Donovan is never going to acknowledge him publicly. After their first night together, one of the girls, the classic evil girlfriend type, catches them and blackmails Donovan into pretending to be her boyfriend so she can win homecoming queen. There is more bullying, more random drama, but when Harvard scouts show up, Donovan finally hits his limit and publicly declares that he is gay and that he loves Kaden. The Harvard scout ends up impressed by both of them and offers them spots at the university.
This one is packed with every cliché you can think of, but what actually worked for me was that Donovan comes to terms with possibly being gay pretty early on, so the show gets to spend more time on how these two actually push each other toward their goals rather than just dragging out the denial. And if you step back and think about it, it makes sense why someone in Donovan's position would be terrified of coming out given everything around him. Kaden gets that and supports him without pushing too hard. The usual ingredients are all here, homophobic teammates, an evil girlfriend, general bullying nonsense, but the two of them work through it and get to their moment. The drama is pretty substantial, as it always is with these. Both guys are very good looking and I have definitely seen them in other things but cannot place where exactly. Decent enough watch overall, nothing more. (5/10)
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