Cure for Love

I can't think of any other movie I have ever watched that literally made my stomach flip and threaten to vomit.

This documentary is so full sanctimonious Christian tripe it is literally nauseating.

Brian Pengella, a Christian, grossly fat, older, bald, gay man imagines he is "cured", and marries a naïve woman, without even checking to see if sex with a female is possible for him and without any sort of check if he has heterosexual feelings. I think his motive was simply desperation — he was too unattractive to get laid as a gay man any more. He was cagey. He did not claim that his sexual orientation had changed, or that he was sexually attracted to his wife, just that they were happy in the relationship, which is of course quite plausible. Everyone in the movie lauds this creep who is so selfish without a thought what will happen to his wife when his science experiment fails.

Perhaps what these deluded Christians really need to be delivered from is anonymous, meaningless, promiscuous sex, not homosexuality. What they really long for is a loving gay relationship.

It is like going to a mental hospital and watching the inmates torment themselves with their delusions.

There is one semi-sane character, who points out that once he accepted himself, all the problems with being gay went away, seemed silly, and it was hard for him to remember what all the fuss was about. The rest of Christians are slitting their wrists, cutting themselves, imposing all various torments on themselves to fight imaginary demons. It is all so pointless. They were all being so stupid I wanted to reach into the screen and smack them.

To add insult to injury, they keep repeating dialogue over and over to pad the documentary, like some low -budget History channel piece.

This film beautifully and excruciatingly shows the tortured thinking of gays and lesbians trapped inside the now de-bunked 'reparative therapy' movement.

The film was designed to make viewers feel disturbed, revolted, outraged - so in that sense the previous reviewer had it right.

The filmmakers managed to get unprecedented access to a notoriously paranoid community, and shed much needed light on the damage that was being done within it.

Instead of using a heavy and condemning hand - adding to damage already done - by betraying its subjects, the film used restraint and simply turned the camera on the lunacy - letting the painful contortions of its participants speak for themselves.

Very well done.

Cure For Love is a very sweet movie about young Christian people and their struggle with homosexuality caused by their religion. Exodus is a Christian organization who's mission statement is to "eradicate homosexuality worldwide" Thankfully Exodus has closed it's door and Repairative Therapy (therapy to "heal" people of their homosexuality) was banned in several states, I think in part due to the exposure this film provides.

This film shows the pain of these young people, without throwing them under the bus and making them wrong, etc. In affect, this film doesn't cause more damage than has already been done in these peoples' lives and I really appreciate that! It would have been very easy to make Anna and Bryan look like fools, and they chose not to do that.

A very beautiful film. 5 Stars