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I ran out of good gay movies, so I decided to view this British one from 2000. Convincing acting across the board, but not a very plausible plot whereby two men, one straight and one gay, are friends from childhood. When the straight one finds a serious live-in girlfriend, the gay "mate", because he's secretly in love, hides a malevolent jealousy streak. He actively works to undo his straight friend's romantic relationship and pays the price in the end. At that point, nobody would envy the gay guy, as his life falls into a deep abyss. One can only hope he has learned some important lessons that can help him later.

This 2000 made for TV film is a sham for gay people. It promotes gay bashing, degrades coming out and gives homosexuals a dated persecuted life style. I could have sworn when I saw this trite work, it must have been done in 1960. For certainly gay issues deserve better than this dribble. The fault lies in the writing and directing. Mark Burt writes a trivial and lack-less script with absolutely no compassion for any of the major characters. Aisling Walsh, a woman, directs with no understanding of how to bring any hope to her leading players. She certainly has no understanding of gay life. If she herself is gay, than shame on her. If not, she needs to go to a gay bar or march in a gay pride day parade and surround herself with today's gay people.

The actors do what they can to give believability to this nonsense. Steve John Shepherd plays the young man tortured over his homosexuality. Afraid to come out to his best friend and to his parents. Why he chooses to do so in such a public way, beats me. But he does. I'll say no more as to the outcome and let you see for yourself. Believe me, you won't be surprised. John Simm, hardly, in my eyes, worth all the suffering, is the attraction to Shepherd as his best friend. Simm has his own demons to deal with. And again, you really don't care. He earns his oats. As the unsympathetic and sometimes just down right annoying girl-friend to Simm, Laura Fraser is a real possessive bitch (can I say that word?) A control freak, she deserves losing any guy who would put up with her antics and games. I was hoping she'd lose the guy in the end. Again, see what happens yourself. Again, no surprise.

Then there are the parents that contradict themselves all over the place. An overbearing dad, played by Maurice Roeves, knows nothing but anger and screams through most of the film. What's with this guy? Sometimes overacting, he suddenly has all this tear jerking at the end? And you don't believe it anyway. "Let him go", says he. I would have been gone from this dad a long time ago. And the mother, played by Ger Ryan, sits and bakes pies. Probes her son most of the time to see what's wrong and when she discovers the truth, over public TV, completely disowns him. She begs him to be honest and then slaps him in the face. Give me a break.

I liked Shepherd's work in this and wish he could have had a decent venue to work with. For he gave the most convincing performance. Simm was one level, Fraser was just awful as were the parents.

I give this dated movie a 2 star for Shepherd's performance attempt.

I gave this movie an "8" when I voted for it. It has a tight script and it's extremely well-acted, especially by the closeted gay actor. The ending was thoroughly stupid. It is still worth watching, but be prepared for an ending that is more 1963 than 2003.

Note: contains spoiler.... 'Forgive and Forget' is on balance, more forgettable than forgivable. Made for Scottish Television (and a boring, Scot version of a BBC drama) by a married female director from a screenplay by a hetero male film student and starring a hetero actor (get a clue here!), the story goes on interminably about how a working class Brit is hopelessly in the closet and jealous of his best mate's live-in girlfriend, whom he's out to undercut by exploiting her paranoia and dislike of his male camaraderie with her boyfriend. It's the British version of a Jerry Springer mentality in the working class subculture which leads, inexorably, to a disastrous coming out on a true-confessions-type TV show called (would you believe) 'Forgive and Forget.' What's sad is that our hero is so naive (and hopelessly inarticulate) that he thinks coming out to his romantic interest on TV will somehow produce a happy ending. No way, Jose. Hetero Sex Object wields a lead pipe and almost kills the guy before girlfriend, appearing miraculously just in time to stop him from murder, leads hetero heartthrob off stage (and, we imagine, to a 'happily ever after'). By this point, since she's already dumped him, she's almost a deus ex machina, and her appearance has no motivation except to save male heterosexuality from life imprisonment (where, no doubt, he would be forced to become some macho guy's 'sex object'). Sorry, but I really didn't like the 'film' (shot on video, no less), including the videography, which was brightly lit and boringly, competently uninteresting. Next time, I'll think twice about believing the hype (here's a clue: the video retailer--whose blurb rating the film I didn't question--is also the film's distributor) and give a movie the old eyeball before showing it to my friends. If you want a far better, and yet more gritty story of coming out in a British working class context, try 'Beautiful Thing'.

A person can do strange things when in love. David is a working class boy. His friendship with 'mate' Theo seems to be indestructible. Until Theo is starts living together with his girlfriend Hannah. Nobody knows David is in love with Theo. And very jealous, as it turns out…

David plays 'hard to get' by trying to break up Theo and Hannah's relationship. He succeeds, but his lies are uncovered at the end. Especially after the weekend in Brighton when Theo can only think of Hannah who has left him, while David wants to make fun. When David, still very deep in the closet, expresses his feelings for Theo in a Jenny Jones-like program on television the shit really hits the fan. David is kicked out of the house by his father and Theo's friendship for David turns into pure hate.

Forgive and Forget is a film about friendship an jealousy. You can really wonder why David doesn't come out of the closet earlier: his life would have been easier. The end of the film is quite sudden and the question pops up why there has to be a fight involving an iron bar. Where did Hannah come from in the last scene? Even though: Forgive and Forget is a nice and very well performed film that makes you think.

Homosexuality is THE BIG THING in this TV drama and as I am intersted in all Gay/Queer film I forced myself to watch this. The pink car should have warned me at the beginning, and the closeted reaction of a believably mixed up guy who takes an awful time COMING OUT on a TV show. The ending is pitifully violent, and the last shot showed a sort of dizzying happiness ( camera literally revolving ). I disliked this so-called drama intensely and did not believe in the acting, which is crucial to any belief in watching a film. It was pedestrian in its direction and well below average, and it came from a dark age of Gay representation on television when ' the subject ' had to be put through a wringer. Perhaps in certain parts of the UK people have not moved on with this approach, but it is not an approach that I want to go anyway near. An ' entertainment ' for this who like watching Gay bashing especially when it comes from a ' friend '.

I'd like to defend this as a wonderful film, one of the best I've seen in 5 years or so. Other reviewers obviously have a different take on the film and I can respect those views but I'd suggest a different interpretation from the one they present:

The story revolves around David, a handsome and macho construction foreman who is in love (secretly) with his childhood best friend Theo. David has acclimated to casual sex on the side as long as his primary emotional bond with Theo is intact. When Theo becomes seriously involved with a woman David is in a crisis.

David O'Neil is a man who has reached the age of 23 without having had an adolescence. Like a lot of us gays he has hidden his true feelings until well past the era when there's something of a 'safety net' around him in the form of friends and older siblings who help most teens navigate treacherous the waters of love and the pain of rejection. David has the usual flaw which comes with growing up gay in a homophobic society. He's been prevented from gaining emotional maturity by expressing love for the person he loves when he's 14 or 16 years old. So he's making the sort of blunders which most people make when they are 16 years old, though unfortunately with adult consequences.

I think Aisling Walsh (director) and Mark Burt (writer) are highly sympathetic with David's plight and they understand him quite well. The film is unflinching in its treatment of its subject and certainly does not end with a rosy soft focus closure. We last see David bloody and rejected by most everyone, and yet smiling and saying, "This has been the best day of my life." That is the central theme of the film.

Steve John Shepherd gives a riveting wonderful performance as David. John Simm (as Theo) is one of the most effortlessly naturalistic actors I've seen, comparable to Russel Crowe in his early-90s Australian films. Acting does not get much better than this.

-Steve Robertson

I bought the DVD based on a couple of reviews that I read. Of course, they were on the website, that was selling the DVD. I normally will check out the movie from the library or video store, before buying it. I guess I should have with this one. The acting was fine, but the storyline was easy to predict. The entire movie seemed rather slow to me. I'm talking about the pace, not lack of action. Although it lacks in that area as well. I think a movie should be entertaining, AND thought provoking. I found this movie to be neither. I realize that everyone has their opinion. Mine, is that I wasted my money. Sorry. I guess as a gay man, I expected more.

This movie could have been so much better. However, it appears to be made for British TV at a time when any bit of old rubbish could be aired as long as it wasn't too graphic and dealt with this type of theme in a superficial manner. The movie just appears to be a collection of scenes that try to tell some kind of story but really does not do that particularly well. The ending makes little sense but again fits in with the era where a happy ending might not have been acceptable. Punishment and unhappiness were the correct judgement for that sinful life. Would be interesting to see a rewrite and new production of this now that thinking and attitudes have changed over the past twenty years.

Don't expect to feel comfortable or be warmed by a Hollywood ending.

Do expect a well-acted fable about the dangers of falling in love with your best friend and how pursuing that love and destroy your friendship. 'How do you tell someone you love them?' 'Just tell them and hope they believe you.' The added closet homosexual existence of one of the friends, and relationship with his family, makes matters more complex.

You are pretty much left to make your own conclusions from the ending. I will be watching this movie again.

Also there are some novel south of the Thames (London) locations.

Neither pro nor anti gay, this powerful drama is set to make us think. A young man is secretly gay, he has loved his childhood 'mate' all his life but can never reveal his true feelings to anyone. His father is a bigot and the rest of his family are oblivious to his needs. His friend is equally unaware of the intensity of his feelings but eventually the truth is revealed under dramatic circumstances. Secret passions, deceitful relationships, bigotry and social pressures to conform, the paradox between between platonic love and sexual need; these are just some of the issues very skillfully handled in this unforgettable drama. The ending may frustrate or even disturb you - but Forgive and Forget will certainly leave you with the feeling that such sentiments are too seldom practiced in our modern selfish culture. Definitely worth seeing.

With the amount of gay writers, directors and actors (openly out or not), it's remarkable that there exists something of a dearth of really high quality gay themed movies. While it may be too much to expect Hollywood to come to the fore, the independents too have been surprisingly poor in this area. European cinema has dealt with gay issues in a far more successful manner. Faced with this situation, gay movies are often over praised simply because they've been made rather than for their intrinsic qualities. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" made over 30 years still overshadows just about any other gay themed movie made since then.

While "Forgive and Forget" certainly does have much going for it, it remains not entirely successful. What it suffers from is a certain pandering simplicity that has been so rampant in British movies for too long; the worst of these (despite their commercial success being "Billy Elliot" and "Full Monty"). "Forgive and Forget" has scenes which teeter on the brink of this ultimately insulting approach of the depiction of complex emotional states. (In all fairness I should mention the winning coming out drama "Get Real" as an outstanding exception.)

What saves the film and really what makes it a worthwhile experience are the two central performances by Steve John Sheppard and John Simm. Both give fully convincing, committed portrayals, despite dialog which is at times less than credible. The force of their acting compels one empathize with predicament of these characters.

Despite the flaws, "Forgive and Forget" is a memorable movie , well worth making the effort to seek out.

I would like to believe that there are more closet gays than gays who are open about their sexuality but I do not have the statistics to prove it. Whether you are open, or not, or about to open, this film will somehow touch you. I like this film so much that I can relate to it. The love story of straight-acting David that has been told so many times but presented in a realistic way is enough to catch my attention. A gay who is in love secretly with his best friend for so many years is nothing but ordinary plot because that is always the case when a straight-acting gay fall for a straight guy. I knew beforehand that the ending of the story would not be a happy one because normally in real life a straight guy would not return the affection of a gay even if that gay is his best friend for so many years. Oh yes! This is the truth! The ending of the love story of David is so credible that makes me watch this film again to remind me that this kind of love does exist, and once you came out of the closet, you are taking a big risk. The acting of David as portrayed by Steve John Shepherd is superb! No doubt, he is so convincing as a straight-acting gay. In fact, I fell for him after watching the film.