Naked As We Came

The line that became the title does say it all. Naked As We Came into this world and naked is how we go. The rest is all good and bad baggage picked up along the way.

Brother and sister Ryan Vigilant and Karmine Alers are summoned to the bedside of their mother S. Lue McWilliams who is dying of cancer and wants to leave the world on some kind of good terms with her children. Her late husband was a U.S. Senator who was looking good to rise higher, but then inexplicably just gave up his career. At the end of the film we get a big hint as to why.

On the family estate they meet one hunky gardener in Benjamin Weaver who has many talents, writing, cooking, and seducing. But it's the son Ryan Vigilant whom he aims for and gets. He's on a mission, but in the process he becomes closer to McWilliams than either of her kids were.

Naked As We Came is an interesting character study of three people bound by blood, but as disparate as they get and the outsider who if he doesn't get them together at least brings about a better understanding.

Nice solid performances with the four leads. As the film is spent 95% of the time on the estate, the film bears comparison to Long Day's Journey Into Night. Not anywhere as good as the O'Neill classic, still Naked As We Came has its own definite merits.

A very stupid, plodding, heavy-handed, badly written, badly directed, VERY badly acted (especially the "dying" mother who looks like she could wrestle lions in a circus), extremely tiresome movie about extremely unpleasant spoiled people with way too much money and way WAY too much unnecessary drama. The mother is dying. So what? People die. People as obnoxious as this bunch should die a lot sooner.

For some perverted, homophobic reason, many gay reviewers of gay movies LOVE to declare that a gay movie is not "really" gay. This is one of those movies. It isn't really a gay movie.

Oh, yeah? When two of the four characters in a movie are gay men, and the ONLY sex in the movie is between those two men (who are - of COURSE! - hot and buff and West-Hollywood hairless and gorgeous), and the two women in the movie are ugly, strident, manipulative, shrieking, raging and/or whining, moaning b!itches... THAT'S not a gay movie? Why? Because the phrase "eating out" is not in the title?

Ahhhh. NOW I understand!

At first glance we may think we are dealing with a gay movie. But it's not like that. It is a film full of clichés in which a dying mother wants to have the perfect relationship with her children, a relationship she has not had all her life until now. Like many people facing death, she can afford to be more open-minded and emotional and closer to her children. The fact that along the way between her boy and another boy who helps her forms a friendship that leads to sex, is not likely to convey something important in the film. In fact, the problem with the film is precisely this poverty of the message it was trying to convey ... for this reason the film is weak, somewhere at grade 6 at most.

not for story, who is far to be original. not really for cast - except S. Lue McWilliams who reminds few roles by Charlotte Rampling. maybe, interesting for first/last images, for music, for the location and for art of measure of director. but, surely , interesting for the imagine an European director, cast and manner to use the story. the delicate European / maybe French/ flavor is its basic virtue.the big sin - performance of Benjamin Weaver. than, the end. it is a family movie and a gay movie. and the impression after its end is far to be disappointed. because, it is not great or a revelation. but it is decent fresco of a family and a fragile relation , all in a not uninspired balance. so, just interesting.

Better than expected.... It's usually a danger sign when the same person writes, directs, produces a film, but in this case, it worked out well. Good choices of actors too. Elliot and Laura are brother and sister who finally go visit mom, who is in the late stages of cancer. They are surprised to find "Ted" living in the house with her, and part of the plot is figuring out how he fits into the picture. There's a love story (or maybe its just a "lust story"...), some family secrets, good times, bad times. The mother did an amazing job as someone realizing her time is almost up, and wants to connect with their kids before she passes away, and maybe impart some lessons she has learned along the way. Similar to Big Eden, from 2000 ! Family members return to the family home to care for a loved one, meet the locals, make life-changing decisions. Elliot is a little bit schizo, but if everything went smoothly, we wouldn't have much of a plot line. The final voice-over epilogue was a little weird... they probably should have filmed another scene, or maybe it didn't come out as they planned, so they tried to wrap it up with the voice-over. Good story. pretty realistic. Lemay gets credit for not making the characters too campy and predictable.