Rod Evan

There has been some discussion in interviews, and the filmakers have been at pains to stress that this is not a gay film, that it's about "more" than that, that it is about family etc etc etc. This is marketing bull. They say this to increase the film's success among straight/mainstream audiences who don't want to watch gay films - and if anything shows har far society still has to go, this is it!

Make no mistake. This is a gay film - and it's a great gay film. It is visually stunning and has multiple set pieces and dramatic scenes that had me on the edge of my seat: the coming-out scene, the sensuous (but not explicit) lovemaking. The choice and use of music also is faultless.

Congratulations to the director and the actors on creating a worthy entry for the much-undervalued lexicon of gay cinema.

I enjoyed this movie. It's well constructed and acted with good performances all round in particular I liked Vincent Rodriguez III as Jonathan Bennett's long-suffering carol singing partner. The 3 story lines weave seamlessly if somewhat confusingly together and there is a heartwarming end. What more could you want from a Hallmark LGBT inclusive Christmas movie? Well, I for one would like to see Hallmark (and others) push just a little further. For all its diversity credit, this film is still wholeheartedly about the conformity of the family ideal. The gay men are cute with the children. The adopted girl is set firmly on the path to become a little princess. Religion rears its secular head through the singing of carols. None of this bothered me too much - but one detail did. The gay kiss. This was very much a 'no sex please we're hallmark' movie. No shirtless reveal. No steamy shower scene, and the kiss between the two men is blink-and-you'll-miss-it brief, and shot carefully to be out of sight of the child. A pity.

Almost 100 years since D H Lawrence published his superbly written expose of class inequality and hypocrisy, and 60 years since the book was cleared in the obscenity trial, you would have thought society would have progressed to the extent of being able to accept and value it for what it is: sexually honest and explicit. But if this Netflix adaptation is anything to go by, we have not progressed.

Clean, polite, and fightfully well spoken, this version is imbued with a romantic innocence that would be creditable if it were not for the fact that the whole spirit of Lawrence's writing and intent has been tossed aside in the process. And for the sake of what? A global audience with zero risk of any problems with sponsors or censors - because this adaptation comes oven-ready censored.

Gone is the earthiness. Gone is Lawrence's explicit dialogue. Gone is any sense of the sheer joy and worship of the body. Gone are both Lady Jane and John Thomas.

Watch it if you want a sanitised Reader's Digest/Hallmark adaptation. Alternatively, buy a second hand copy of the unexpurgated orginal, and enjoy.