De Zéro à I Love You

Pete, a single black man, has an affair with Jack, a married white man. Pete's father, a lawyer, is upset that Pete is dating a married man for the 4th time, and urges Pete to commit and settle down. Meanwhile, Jack has had homosexual episodes since his teens, married the prettiest girl in his class, had 2 kids, and both Jack and his wife have successful careers. Regardless of his behavior, Jack confesses to his counselor that he doesn't want to be gay or bisexual. While Pete and Jack declare their love for each other, will Jack finally divorce his wife, and will Pete be willing to wait for the divorce?

I saw this at the Inside Out LGBT festival, and the Q+A answered a puzzle I was having. The story was set in the present - Jack's brother-in-law warns Jack against leaving an electronic footprint by texting or sending "dick pics", and Jack's lawyer jokes about his "1st divorce", given that same-sex marriage is now legal. But the "don't want to be gay" attitude seemed to be from an earlier period. It turns out that the inspiration for this film came from the writer / director's experiences earlier in life, before he became too old to play Pete himself. OK, I understand, but it still means I give it a mixed review.

Soap opera of fraught interracial affair between out gay and closeted gay in hetero marriage. Not terrible, the leads are pretty, some good moments, but oh my it just goes on and on and on repetitively in familiar territory. I don't for a moment believe there is any passion here -- even the betrayed parties seem like they'll be fine after a stiff drink. The script meanders, and it looks like everybody was afraid to bring any scale to the thing; acting is not just "looking natural" -- you've got to take us someplace, show us things . . .

I'm dying to see all the new gay romance movies, but this one fell flat for me. Seemed all contrived and not real. The married gay guy had this annoying nasal voice and his black squeeze was too feminine acting. Sorry, I like perfection on the screen....ain't that the main reason drop dead gorgeous guys get picked to become actors? And then the pseudo macho gay guy with tatts was just a typical urban gay clone. Acting was OK. The actress playing the dumber than dumb wife was good. Near the end, the pace slowed too much. The climax scene in the street was just too Hollywoodesque. Didn't buy any of this film for a minute.

I grew up resenting being taught to be paranoid. The folks in this story could have benefitted somewhat from a pinch more paranoia than they exercised. My only resistance in the movie was my inner counselor kept doing therapy on all the characters. OF course I know if they all made consistently good decisions there would be no plot and no movie. Well, not a problem; they were all screwed up enough to make a damned good, impressive movie! My time was well spent.

This low budget film makes great use of its resources due to a lot of talent behind the screen as well as in front. This is a stylish, well written rom-com about a gay love affair with all the difficulties & complications getting there as is usual for this type of film. It's a nice little movie full of very likeable actors and the characters they portray. It's smart and humorous and I was surprised at how much I liked it as it's not my usual style, but it's hard to resist despite a bit of necessary unpleasantness involving a wife and children. All the actors are good, though I never really bought for a minute that the co-lead, Scott Bailey, was gay, but like the rest here, he is likeable and appealing. I was particularly impressed by the other lead, Darryl Stephens. He's talented and attractive with a smoky voice that is killer. It's not flawless by any means, but it is a good little film that I don't think had a theatrical release, which is a shame, though it probably wouldn't have made a dime. It's not the point of this film, but bisexuality is a lot more common in this country than many would believe.