Unconditional

"Unconditional Love", aka "Unconditional", presents the intense story of a severely repressed homosexual attempting to create his fantasy woman from an inexperienced, virgin, teenage boy. Seventeen year old Owen meets the slightly older Liam and becomes dazzled by his attention, fast car, money, and large personality. After an evening drinking and fearful of being rejected by his new friend, Owen allows Liam to dress and make him up as a woman. Liam then convinces Owen to go out on the town as the newly created "Kristen".

Afterwards, Owen attempts to distance himself from Liam, but Liam's threat to disappear for good and his own immaturity cause Owen to reconsider. From this point forward, Liam's fantasy becomes the driving force in their relationship. As the fantasy persists, it grows and becomes fragile. It threatens to crush both of them as Liam spirals closer and closer to homicidal rage because the fantasy fails to transcend to reality, and as Owen struggles to come to terms with burgeoning sexuality and personality before he loses everything.

I have not been so engaged by a psycho-drama in a very long time. I am amazed at the quality of this gay-themed film as most suffer from the dreaded "writer as director" or a tiny budget that mandates starving artists. This film exceeded every expectation I had. Every actor hit every mark, every scene moved the action forward, and the whole exceeded the sum of its parts. Harry McEntire as "Owen" and Christian Cooke as "Liam" gave performances way beyond their years and carried the film beautifully. I can't wait to see them in the future. Definitely worth going out of your way to see this film.

This movie captivated from the start. Superficially it described predator Liam taking advantage of Owen. But there's so much more to it that that. Highly recommended.

Unconditional concerns two 17 year old twins Owen (Harry McEntire) and his more aggressive sister Kristen (Madeleine Clark) who look after their disabled mother.

Kristen wants some cash and applies for a loan, she is visited by a local loan adviser, Liam (Christian Cooke) who is charismatic and Kristen takes a shine to him.

However Liam is interested in Owen, for a laugh he gets Owen to dress up like a woman and takes him out for the night wining and dining him. This relationship continues but it is clear Liam is conflicted with his own sexual preferences, he does not feel attracted to Owen when he is not dressed as a woman. For Owen, he is finding out about himself and his own sexuality but Liam is volatile and wants unconditional love which threatens to psychologically suffocate Owen.

This is a nice little movie, filmed in the north east and with a raw feel to it. You feel for Owen when he is abandoned at the beach by Liam. An intense performance from both the leads but it works more as a small scale character study rather than a feature film.

This was so very interesting, so touching, emotional and heartbreaking too. Full of moments you could help but feel sympathy towards Liam. Owen was naive and inexperienced but you could tell he had grown in some way through this experience from a young lad to a man. It was truly a must see watch and all the cast, location setting where spot on.