I've had the opportunity to watch several gay-themed romances over the past few weeks and found most to be as banal, unrealistic, and outright silly as their heterosexual counterparts. Gefangen, aching to be taken seriously, is no exception - it plays like romanticized gay porn.
We meet Dennis as he is summarily striped and ushered into a dreary German prison. Inside is what we've come to expect from every film of this sort: guards on the make, skinny punks forced to service their more aggressive cell mates, hair-raising shower scenes, ineffectual and uncaring management, etc. Dennis quickly adapts to the routine of prison life and finds a deep and enduring love with fellow convict Mike. And to think I've been wasting my time in gay chat rooms, when I should have been haunting government facilities!
The main problem with Gefangen is its tone. Dennis and Mike's love affair is played with an earnestness impossible to believe and they move through prison like petulant adolescents. When guards forcibly separate the pair after a romantic tryst, Mike fumes "You can't keep us apart!" as though meddling parents had burst through his bedroom door. The characters themselves are one-dimensional puppets, imprisoned not so much by the German authorities as by the plot's machinations. As a result, the hero's final decision is laughable rather than touching. Only the truly sentimental could take this film - with a vision of love lifted straight from the diary of a thirteen year old girl - seriously.
We meet Dennis as he is summarily striped and ushered into a dreary German prison. Inside is what we've come to expect from every film of this sort: guards on the make, skinny punks forced to service their more aggressive cell mates, hair-raising shower scenes, ineffectual and uncaring management, etc. Dennis quickly adapts to the routine of prison life and finds a deep and enduring love with fellow convict Mike. And to think I've been wasting my time in gay chat rooms, when I should have been haunting government facilities!
The main problem with Gefangen is its tone. Dennis and Mike's love affair is played with an earnestness impossible to believe and they move through prison like petulant adolescents. When guards forcibly separate the pair after a romantic tryst, Mike fumes "You can't keep us apart!" as though meddling parents had burst through his bedroom door. The characters themselves are one-dimensional puppets, imprisoned not so much by the German authorities as by the plot's machinations. As a result, the hero's final decision is laughable rather than touching. Only the truly sentimental could take this film - with a vision of love lifted straight from the diary of a thirteen year old girl - seriously.