Henry Gamble's Birthday Party

Not sure what I think about this movie. It spends next to no time with the title character, choosing to spend it on the plethora of side characters while almost entirely ignoring the premise that probably draws most of the audience for this movie: a cute guy coming to terms with his homosexuality.

And yet, its characterization of church goers isn't as much of a caricature as many think. All of their judgemental opinions and holier-than-thou attitudes are things that I personally experienced growing up around church goers.

I'm not really sure what this movie set out to be, but at least it was honest.

The plot is that Henry Gamble is going to be seventeen and his father – Preacher Bob – wants to throw a big pool party to celebrate. As he is a preacher everything is going to be done the way Jesus would have wanted – but no alcohol, provocative music or other stuff that they make up as they go along. Thing is Henry is gay – but he is still in the closet although right from the get go you can tell he is bursting to come out.

Then the party starts and as the guests turn up it seems that everyone has baggage and they are also all struggling with then inner conflicts that go with faith and desire.

Now this has been applauded and panned in equal measure and the reasons are both valid. Firstly this is all about sex and sexual.ity but it is all talk and, quite literally, no trousers. Personally I think that is OK but for the nay sayers they are right in saying it is setting its stall out to attract the wrong audience. Also it does not deal with nigh o all of the issues that are raised, from sexual identity, faith conflicts, mental health issues or alcohol.

The thing is this is really well made. Despite any real dénouement the characters and their problems are very believable. It is well acted with only a couple of times where a character seems to be stepping into 'cliché-ville'. So am slightly torn, I actually did enjoy this though – hence my rating but as I said if you want a film with any real exploration of the issues that it is based on, then this will probably not rock your world.

This is a really lovely film by a filmmaker I had not heard of. Never in a rush to get anywhere, Stephen Cone's film weaves its way so naturally through these intersecting lives, as they jump in and out of the pool at Henry Gamble's 17th Birthday Party. Everyone has a crush on someone else, no one is satisfied, and yet there's nothing melodramatic, just subtle body language, and flashes of accidental honesty. I was immediately intrigued - from the first innocent conversation between two teen boys casually exaggerating the size of their members, to the prophetic line Henry announces to his family, as he looks at the time on the morning of the party, "I was just born." The family is very Christian, dad is the local pastor so there's prayer before meals, and they don't touch alcohol, which makes the homosexual subtext (among other secrets) at the beginning of the movie all the more intriguing. Coming out movies had their heyday, and to do one nowadays requires it to be a lot more, which this movie is. Mr. Cone's delicate hand, and his subtle message of compassion is never overwhelmed by the enormous, talented, relatively unknown cast, or the inherent drama of teenage angst.

After a promising start, this movie goes into many directions and introduces too many ancillary characters who we know nothing about, nor to do we care to know. It assumes we know the back story about each character - it may have made more sense as the last episode of a soap opera but not as a feature film. As a lawyer might say, "it assumes facts not in evidence"! Finally, screenplay is poor and the actors delivery hovers between stilted and merely adequate. Avoid this one.

This isn't my favorite Stephen Cone film (try The Wise Kids or Princess Cyd), but I appreciate the vibe it's capturing. The repressed setting definitely brought me back. Like Dramarama, it's filled with awkward teen pool moments. If you didn't grow up in a repressed Christian atmosphere, I'm not sure you'll get it.