This was a movie viewed on DVD and, as it is not the kind of movie that could hold your attention or entertain you for the duration, it definitely felt like a slog to get through. I did finish the movie in one night, but only after about 4 breaks.
There is nothing wrong with adopting a genre with a gay twist. The gay mystery - featuring detectives, policemen, mystery book authors, gay bookstore owners, amateur sleuths, etc. - has become a popular genre. Likewise, recently, the gay horror has become its own little sub-industry on cable television.
At least in this instance, the director cannot be blamed for taking her own script and directing it (as one user review erroneously states here). This is more of another example of a play being turned into a film but still keeping a lot of the wordiness and excessive dialogue elements. As another user review pointed out, the Performing Artist interludes, in addition to being unwelcome, feel purely like padding (as does the ending voice-over by the character Michael, whom I suppose we're suppose to picture sailing off into the sunset on his tiny little row boat as he imparts the last bit of final wisdom all the preceding 90 minutes (8 months and, apparently 12 or 13 days) have taught him about life as a male homosexual.
There isn't much male intimacy in this film, although there's a lot of underwear wearing and while I did pay note of the full list of sponsors, presumably a tanning salon was one of them. The three leads aren't horrible actors, but they aren't good enough to rise above their material and one of them really needs to get a better agent. Cory Schneider (as Tommy in this film) has not been cast twice in two roles where he essentially display a range that goes from (as Variety put it in the part of the review they didn't selectively place on the DVD cover art) "whiny" and runs the gamut to "emotional immaturity."
David Stokey has a bunch of scenes that really don't show much range. Unfortunately for him, he cannot blame all the problems with his performance to the script. The final lead had not other credits on IMDb, and while he certainly looked nice with his clothes on and off, I kept wanting him to do something with his hair or shave the carefully acquired stubble and do something other than the piercing/penetrating eye thing.
Utlimately, the move was a little more complicated than necessary, not fully developed where necessary, and better plotting could have made it a better film. The direction didn't appear to help and the sound mix, at least on the DVD, was extremely poor quality.
There is nothing wrong with adopting a genre with a gay twist. The gay mystery - featuring detectives, policemen, mystery book authors, gay bookstore owners, amateur sleuths, etc. - has become a popular genre. Likewise, recently, the gay horror has become its own little sub-industry on cable television.
At least in this instance, the director cannot be blamed for taking her own script and directing it (as one user review erroneously states here). This is more of another example of a play being turned into a film but still keeping a lot of the wordiness and excessive dialogue elements. As another user review pointed out, the Performing Artist interludes, in addition to being unwelcome, feel purely like padding (as does the ending voice-over by the character Michael, whom I suppose we're suppose to picture sailing off into the sunset on his tiny little row boat as he imparts the last bit of final wisdom all the preceding 90 minutes (8 months and, apparently 12 or 13 days) have taught him about life as a male homosexual.
There isn't much male intimacy in this film, although there's a lot of underwear wearing and while I did pay note of the full list of sponsors, presumably a tanning salon was one of them. The three leads aren't horrible actors, but they aren't good enough to rise above their material and one of them really needs to get a better agent. Cory Schneider (as Tommy in this film) has not been cast twice in two roles where he essentially display a range that goes from (as Variety put it in the part of the review they didn't selectively place on the DVD cover art) "whiny" and runs the gamut to "emotional immaturity."
David Stokey has a bunch of scenes that really don't show much range. Unfortunately for him, he cannot blame all the problems with his performance to the script. The final lead had not other credits on IMDb, and while he certainly looked nice with his clothes on and off, I kept wanting him to do something with his hair or shave the carefully acquired stubble and do something other than the piercing/penetrating eye thing.
Utlimately, the move was a little more complicated than necessary, not fully developed where necessary, and better plotting could have made it a better film. The direction didn't appear to help and the sound mix, at least on the DVD, was extremely poor quality.