Boyfriends

After 10 years, Boyfriends still stands out as one of the finest movies yet about gay relationships. I've seen it maybe half a dozen times, and never find it anything but fascinating and compelling and often very funny. The characters and story lines are complex and the performances believable. I recall reading that this film was based on conversations with the actors, all of who whom were openly gay (another reason this film remains accurate and unique among gay cinema). I would guess that almost every gay viewer will find himself or his relationship represented in this film. Unfortunately, most of the cast (with the exception of James Dreyfus and Andrew Ableson) have pretty much disappeared since Boyfriends. The filmmakers returned quite a few years later with the very different, higher budgeted, and equally fascinating The Lawless Heart. I hope we'll see more from their work in the future.

Co-writers/directors Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter conjured this little Indie film in 1996, an examination of relationships among seven gay men that not only impresses as a non-exploitive, honest sociologic study of life in the 90s in England, it also is a film that is a healthy mix of humor and tenderness that stands up well more than ten years later.

Three couples of varying endurance gather for a weekend holiday to celebrate a birthday: Paul (James Dreyfus, remembered as Hugh Grant's ditsy travel book shop worker in NOTTING HILL) has been with Ben (Mark Sands) for five years but their relationship is rocky because of Paul's wandering eye for a lad he met at the funeral of his brother Mark; Matt (Michael Urwin) is celebrating his three month steady relationship with Owen (Andrew Abelson) though Owen already has the itch to move on; Will (David Coffey) brings his latest one-night stand twinkie Adam (Darren Petrucci), knowing that his chances of retaining the youth's interest are less than favorable. Into the mix comes James (Michael McGrath), the ex-lover of the recently departed Mark whose arrival and introduction to the group occurs in the form of a tryst in the woods with Owen.

Each of the paired men face confrontations and face honesty about their pasts - recent and distant - and it is through the weekend of bed swapping that each man finds his own real needs. And the results vary from happy reunions to factual realities of choices made.

The cast is a mixture of seasoned professional actors and newcomers who have not made subsequent films. There is a ring of honesty in the portrayals and the creators have opted to study compatibilities based on personality traits and needs as opposed to filling the story with the requisite soap opera subplots that tend to dampen the effect of these studies of groups and their lives. It is not a great film, but is an honest little quiet movie with particularly good performances from James Dreyfus and Andrew Abelson. Worth watching, even in 2007! Grady Harp

Whiny, dull characters, a cliched "Big-Chill" style set-up and predictable, flat dialogue. Like the majority of 90's gay cinema, offers little in the way of insight and simply satisfies itself with rehashing tired identity politics and reinforcing conventional notions of gay male attitudes and behavior. None of the characters resonate; the film starts at point A and basically stays there for what feels like a very, very loooong time.

I'd rather sit through "Boys In the Band" or "Cruising" a hundred times than watch this pedestrian mess again.

Although this film DID remind me of something else (NOT "The Big Chill" either), I found it to be refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable. The ensemble cast was particularly talented, the writing was appropriately intricate with a few surprises, and there was even a fun Dinah Washington song ("I Wish I Knew the Name of the Boy in My Dreams")to spruce it up a bit. As with most British films, I had a bit of a difficult time with the accents at first, but I think I got most of it. There's just something INTELLIGENT about the SOUND of the language in British films! At any rate, once I figured out the relationships (and lack of them), I had a good time watching the country weekend for the "lads" unfold. Perhaps the film didn't especially break any new ground, but I don't think a film HAS to do that to be worthwhile. Does every STRAIGHT movie that's fun break new ground? I don't think so. It's about time that a gay movie can be kind of ordinary (no drugs, no AIDS, no suicides) and still be good entertainment. I think the British are much better than we Americans at making gay films, and this is just another example. By the way, the film that reminds me of this one is "Love! Valour! Compassion!"--but this one came first.

This decent production of an excellent script will please gay men looking for a funny and thought-provoking exploration of the problems with maintaining relationships. No drag queens or coming-out stories in sight! (Well, maybe one coming out story.) Even if you can't make out all the British-accented dialog (especially the Cockney lad who doesn't know there are "not just one, but two TTs in settee")enough humor comes through for many out-loud laughs. Best of all is the story of three long-time friends checking in on each other's love lives, ranging from smothering clinger, smoldering cruiser, to aspiring sugar daddy. After you see it, the word "pig" will never sound the same -- and not for a reason you'd expect. This is the kind of gay cinema we need a lot more of!