Steel

I am always pleased when I see a gay themed movie with good acting, an engaging story, and high production values. Chad Connell put in a very strong performance as an emotionally conflicted gay man as he goes through a major psychological crisis. The cinematography was excellent, and showcased the beautiful city of Winnipeg and the Manitoba countryside. The music by Vincent Ho was absolutely gorgeous. I was looking for the famous composer of the lovely classical piano and violin sonata, and surprised and pleased to discover it was an original score. I hope we see more of Vincent's compositions.

I have never watched a movie in my life with this much music throughout it. It was one long continuous score! It was overly dramatic as well. It would be appropriate at an orchestra event, but not for this film. The whole story could have been told in 30 minutes. There was so much dead air and unnecessary montages.

On a positive note, the set decorator and production designer did a good job.

You really can tell a Canadian indie movie; there's always that overriding vernier of slow-pace coupled with extremely bad bed music. This writing and plot is very weak, and the entire story could have been told in 30 minutes; enough time to expose and resolve the lead character's entire background story, add in a few tawdry gratuitous sex scenes...and yeah, that's pretty much it. The long pan-outs of scenery and mugging for the camera are beyond superfluous. And without spoilers, I pretty much "got" who Alexander was after their third interaction (yes...it was that predictable). The one good thing I can say is the filmography is well done and ranges from the hand-held/shaky technique to give the air of tension to some very elaborate shots which must have required some expensive equipment. In fact, I seriously don't know how the producer got the money to create this movie with such polish (then again, this is a Canadian film, so I'm sure they got a public grant for their required quota of gay films per year). If you have an hour to kill, watch this movie with a remote control so you can fast-forward through the slow parts...you'll need it.

I believe this film is worthy of so much appreciation by many men struggling with their identity and truth. How informative, challenging, encouraging!

I wasn't expecting to like this movie much so the fact that I love it speaks volume. The story pulled me in and even though the plot twist at the end which I won't reveal (spoiled in other reviews anway) isn't as well executed as one might hope, it still took me by surprise and felt satisfying.

The acting by lead actor Chad Connell as Daniel is by far the best aspect as he delivers a solid and restrained, subtle yet effective performance as a tormented gay man trying to come to grips with his reality. The worst aspect is David Cameron as Alexander who gives a jittery and nervous performance often sounding fake and not really convincing yet he doesn't hurt the movie as much as he could have because he has a fair chemistry with Daniel. Yet this makes me wonder how even better the movie could have been with a different actor.

The cinematography, the direction and the editing were all very good and I really liked that they succeed in showing us how Daniel perceives the world by using different technical tricks and just how conflicted the character is with the actor making the pain and confusion palpable. I first wanted to give this 7 stars but had to deduct 1 for the acting of Cameron yet Connell's performance elevates the movie so much that I added back 2 stars for a strong final rating of 8.

This is by no means a perfect movie nor will it entice everyone watching, some might find it too slow and convoluted and yes, there are some scenes that made me cringe (mostly because of the Alexander character) but overall I really enjoyed it. Somehow the story stayed with me which is always a good sign that a movie achieved what it set out to do, entertain yet touch us in a way that might make a difference. Very well done and I highly recommend it.