Lost Everything

The theme of "closeted celebrity" has been done repeatedly since the 90s. Yet since that time, a number of high profile celebrities have come out as gay or bisexual, which makes the premise of this film from 2010 a bit anachronistic in its scope (almost as it it were written 20 years prior but just never got funding, and had to modernize at the last minute). The periphery plots of a detective agency willing to kill anyone off for the right price really pushed the limits of suspension of disbelief. The acting was good for a soap opera, but not for a feature-length film. I'd say watch if you need some brain-candy...but not good for much else.

Lost Everything is the story of a closeted thirtysomething movie star and his overbearing, Mommie-Dearest manager; a journalist intent on outing him; a bartender who becomes the love of his life; some gangsters led by a ruthless black Godmama; an insane televangelist; two straight women; and assorted gay men - all in Miami. They're involved more or less with each other in what I suppose is meant to be either a thriller or an object lesson on the dangers of the closet.

The whole thing is so preposterous, though, that it's hard to take it as seriously as it clearly wants to be taken. It might have worked as a campy farce, but that's not how it was played. It seems from the interviews on the DVD that the people involved in making Lost Everything were deeply committed to it; the problem is that none of them had enough talent to make it work. The story, dialog and direction are ludicrous. The only credible performance is by Leif Holt as Christian (the televangelist's gay son), but unfortunately it's a very small role.

Kim St Leon, the director and co-writer, comes across as a really nice person, so I wish I could have liked her movie, but I just don't. The first ten minutes were SO bad that I almost gave up, but when I saw that nobody had reviewed it here I forced myself to finish it and even to watch the fairly extensive interviews on the DVD (the DVD says it includes a short called The Attachment, but it doesn't). It got a lot better the instant Holt appeared, and every time he was on screen the movie suddenly got interesting, but he wasn't on enough to redeem the rest of it. I'll look for other movies he's done, but he's all that makes this one worth watching.

Looks like it was filmed on an iPhone4. They guys are nice to look at and the bartender actor was pretty good and hotter than his Hollywood boyfriend. It gets really outrageous as the two plot lines come together.