This is a very well made film and it was really a good film for the LGBT community. Most LGBT films have a tendency to just end as if they ran out of money and you are left without any answers at the end. It just ends leaving unanswered questions. Too often gay cinema has done this and I look at my husband and he has that "What happened?" look on his face. They also tend to look low budget and the acting is often less than stellar. This film is the exception!
I thought the characters were spot on. The female photographer and actress is very beautiful. The main Character and his partner appear to be extremely happy and they have been together for 15yrs, hence the title. My only complaint was that the time span was hard to figure out when they initially separated and there should have been more of a lead up to why this couple of 15yrs decided to just throw those years away. It seems as if they are very happy and have been for years, then after the tense dinner party situation, they split up. It's like their has never been any real communication between them and they have just been living together as partners. The English Captions are also very fast so you have to sort of skim them to keep up. It shows how open relationships are not always the best option for some people. Speaking as a person who's been in a monogamous relationship 20yrs now, I do not think I could be in an open relationship and be happy. I think they work for some couples but not everyone is wired for this kind of relationship. The older and more dominant partner seems to have psychological issues with loosing his mother. Issues that he should seek out professional help to get under control. I can relate to his experience as I lost my mother who was my best friend as well in 2004. I still have not gotten over my loss and probably never will. However I do not have anger issues that are portrayed in this film. I basically have one sister left and that's it! It's scary to think about loosing my now husband as he is my only family. I have friends that I can count on for support but I hate being alone. I have had separation anxiety all of my life. I know that I would never find a person as trustworthy, loving, and kind as my now husband. He is also older than myself and I can see that my worst fear of being alone will probably be my eventual reality. But this is a review, not a psychological analysis of my personal life!
There are many unanswered questions here as another review mentions. Who was the old man in the end? Was that the main character seeing himself and how he thinks his life alone will become in the future? I also think that if you have been in a 15yr relationship with another person that you would have already talked about adopting children. The couple are in their 40s and you would think that the possibility of children would have come up at some point in the 15 years that they have been in a relationship. This is generally the kinds of questions that are discussed as your relationship starts to become serios enough to move in with each other. The main couple this film centers around seems to go from appearing to be very settled down and doing well together to unhappy and separated within a few minutes. After some friends who have adopted children bring up the subject at the dinner party. It's like dominant male character in the main couple becomes extremely manic at the mention of children.
Also, the only way I could tell that time was lapsing was because the main female role who was pregnant started showing. So she tells her friend, the dominant male character that she's 4 months pregnant at the uncomfortable dinner party. I guess I missed something as I thought the party was to celebrate her successful photo exhibition, she initially said she was 4 weeks pregnant. Is it suppose to be some time period in this area before the dinner party? The lapse in time of the main relationship is hard to follow as well. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the main male character had been separated from his partner for four months or so. I was also confused after the main male character apparently creates an online profile and he is choking the person who responds. Was that the younger man who initiated this or the dominant male character? The main male character is kind of a jerk, so I'm wondering if he's always been like this or did something set him off and create the person he has become? I can not imagine living or dating anyone who is terribly moody and lacks any communication skills. Communication is exactly why my husband and myself have never once had a fight or even yelled at one another.
The one thing that I can say about this film is that at the end it didn't just stop and the credits start rolling leaving the watcher wondering what happened. You get the impression that the dominant male partner in this relationship is not coming back as he sneaks out and leaves his key in a bowl by the door. You get an answer about there relationship and that it's obviously over! I actually enjoyed this film and it is well worth the time. Not a lot of nudity, but the film had se real opportunities to have some, but nudity isn't necessarily required to make a LGBT film interesting and a good movie. The film was very well shot and produced in a professional fashion. It doesn't look low budget as a lot of LGBT films generally do and it seems like it's filmed in High Definition.
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