West of Eden

This is the New Zealand version of Brokeback Mountain. Nowhere as good as that and spoiled by low budget, poor production poor editing, and a really, really bad script. Nothing about the story was believable. Such a shame as it could really have been a good movie.

I fell in love with Billy, he is so cute! I wanted to take him home. A great story full of twists and turns. The film is full of beautiful New Zealand countryside. The hair and makeup and clothes make me wish I was living in 1960. Sexy cars, even a train, and the men all wearing hats, just so cool. I was so caught up in the characters and the story that the next day I could not stop thinking about what became of them all. I love the song in the kitchen scene, so much a song of the time. I wish we could have seen a bit more smooching between Billy and Tom but I am still excited to see a film made about the struggle gay men had back then, it makes you think about how hard it was for anyone who did not fit in. This is New Zealand's Brokeback Mountain - the story is totally different but the stand for equal rights that the filmmakers make is the same.

I saw this film last night and I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful and well crafted it was. The cinematography was beautiful creating an atmosphere that captured the 1960s. Costumes were excellent and the makeup and hair perfect for the era, something I am very particular about. The acting was great and the casting spot on, and the two leads are hot! I hope I get to see more of these actors in New Zealand films. They got the music right too adding to the film's atmosphere. The film was labeled a 'Gay love story' but I think this is a bit misleading - it is really a story about love, relationships, and social restrictions in 1960, especially in conservative rural New Zealand. It is a complex but beautifully written story with full real characters. I loved this film, keep making them, director, Alastair Riddell.

OK I was going to give this movie four stars but as it was beautifully photographed, with some exceptional art direction and amazing visual detail created by the set decorator and costume designer, I upped my rating to five.

This is a bit of a glimpse into my own early childhood. Not quite the same way as described in the movie but the same scenario took similar forms in New Zealand in the fifties and early sixties.

Although the film is hinted as being a gay love story, it is more a secret and lies drama with the action played out, not in some North England town, but on a farm out in the sticks of rural New Zealand.

OK, this all sounds like everything is great and we are in for two emotional hours of pretty good film making. Things started to fall down during the (unnecessary) prologue with some bad post sync dialogue. This slightly stilled dialogue continued throughout a lot of the movie. The script was great but listening to the dialogue made me feel quite uncomfortable. This wasn't helped by the music score which was recorded so loud as to drown out a lot of what I was trying to hear.

The wonderful period costumes and props were marred by some of the worst movie makeup on a non-vampire movie I have ever seen. Almost every cast member looked like they had escaped from 'Spookers'.

The director decided to film every scene involving the actors from every angle possible. The editing room didn't help by trying to edit in every angle too. This was not an action movie and looking at a person's head from every angle starts to make you physically sick.

Some of the scenes could have been trimmed a tad - especially where the camera seemed to focus a bit too long on minor characters who were really not that important in keeping the story going.

This all sounds rather hash but I think this movie would have benefited from some public screenings, for feedback purposes, before hitting the circuit.

There's a lot to work with here. At least 30 minutes could have ended up on the cutting room floor. There were several characters that could have been left out altogether and nothing would have been lost. Not that the actors were bad just unnecessary. The brother's wife, the daughter both completely unneeded to tell the story. The writer/director needed to figure out who this story was about. Had it been a gay love story it might have worked better. Had it been a story for the mother and why she left then it might have worked. Either way would have given focus the movie seemed to lack. I watched it, but was left disappointed and somewhat disappointed that I'd invested time in another "the world treats gays badly" film.