Long-Term Relationship

A truly frightening film. Feels as if it were made in the early '90s by a straight person who wanted to show that gays are good, normal, mainstream-aspiring people. Retrograde to the point of being offensive, LTR suggests that monogamy and marriage are the preferred path to salvation for sad, lonely, sex-crazed gays. Wow! Who knew? The supporting characters are caricatures of gay stereotypes (the effeminate buffoon, the bitter, lonely queen, the fag hag, etc.) and the main characters are milquetoast, middle-class, middlebrow clones, of little interest.

As far as the romantic & ideological struggles of the main couple are concerned, there's not much to say: we've seen it all before, and done much better.

Interesting to read all the varying comments posted here regarding this movie. I think viewer reaction really depends on how much of a sucker you are for a romantic comedy that does away with reason and believability in an effort to come up with a happy ending.

One person mentioned that the director/writer/producer only read "Directing For Dummies" before he helmed this. I wish he had read "Screenwriting For Dummies" too. I think the major problem lies not in the direction but in his script. The development of the central relationship doesn't make sense. Supporting characters disappear for a good portion of the movie, only to reappear at the end.

There are a couple of laugh-out-loud funny lines - mostly delivered by actor Artie O'Daly as Eli. Some would say the character he plays is stereotypical, but he's a good actor with great comic timing & almost steals the movie. That said, other dialogue (and performances) are cringe-worthy.

Questions regarding political and sexual incompatibility in the central gay relationship are raised - which is good - but the solution, according to this film, is to just go ahead and get married! The Republican character doesn't offer any objection. Nothing is worked out. Just slap a happy ending on it. It's a shame. What we're left with is another gay indie film in which a writer/director/producer would have benefited from collaborating with someone to come up with a better finished product.

Movie had some good acting and good moments (though obviously pretty low budget), but bad rating due to basic premise being badly developed. The main point of conflict between the two leads doesn't play out in a realistic manner at all. There are a few scenes where they disagree because of it, but no discussions of any great depth that would explain how they can be together while seeing the world so differently, especially since the employment of Glenn is so wound up in this part of his life (and Adam is active enough with his that he supports it with time and money.) Also, several times Glenn is portrayed negatively for being the way he is (apologizing to Adam for his past) while Adam is shown to be upstanding and "traditional," which the film proclaims to be the "good" way in the end. I don't like being preached to like that. I attended a discussion session with the director after viewing LTR, and he said that he presented this conflict between them because, if he was in Glenn's shoes (and he said he does in real life relate to Glenn's view) that he could never date someone with Adam's views. Well, then, I think he should have done a much better job explaining how Glenn could do it in the film. Also, director said he directed this, his first movie, only after reading (Directing For Dummies.) Directing was not that bad, but far from a top notch effort. I've seen worse, but I rarely leave films feeling this frustrated.

Not so bad, but that's about all that can be said for it.

There are some genuinely amusing moments in the movie, mostly supplied by the supporting cast, but at times both the comedy and the drama really stretch credulity and fall flat.

When Glenn asks Mary Margaret why she's drinking herbal tea instead of coffee, she smiles coyly and says she's in her first trimester. His reaction: "oh are you going back to school." Ha. Ha.

When Adam's parents come for a visit, Glenn is hesitant and nervous about spending the night with Adam while his parents are in the house, but then later in the night he comes out of the bedroom stark naked, walks past the bathroom and stands at the kitchen sink for a drink of water with Adam's father sitting a few feet away. Surprise. Then, when the father invites him to sit and talk, he stays naked sitting at the dining room table rather than quickly grabbing a pair of shorts or a bathrobe or even a tea towel, but we're supposed to be amused by him feeling awkward and uncomfortable because he's naked with his boyfriend's father.

These contrived, desperate attempts at humor along with some really lame miscommunications situations that lead to some thin but over-acted drama, unfortunately reduce what could have been a reasonably decent movie down to soap opera or second-rate sitcom level.

The supposed intensity of love between the two lead characters never really comes across so that their communications mix-ups and fumbling attempts at sex don't really raise much tension on the part of viewers for fear that their romance might flounder. Actually I was hoping Glenn would forget about Adam and realize that his friend & roommate Vincent, who had a long-standing crush on Glenn, was a far better, more attractive and lively catch.

The "happily ever after" wrap-up that encompassed most of the characters felt like it was tacked on at the end simply because the movie had gone on long enough and a resolution, no matter how fairytale-ish, was needed before the curtain came down on it all.

I sat through most of it, although towards the end I started jabbing at the fast-forward button. A different actor playing Adam might have made a big difference.

Long-Term Relationship is one of those films that will go down as a must see for gay film lovers. First off it is very funny. The script is witty at every turn but doesn't lose sight of it's story because of it.

The cast is great. The stand out is Mattew Montgomery. He holds the whole film together. With his good looks and quiet charm, Matthew treads along the zany world of his friends and works on getting his long-term relationship perfect. The other characters are pretty well rounded too. And what is a gay film without cute guys? The cast is full of them but as far as cuteness goes, I am partial to Jeremy Lucas who plays Vincent.

The romance in the film is so natural. The characters of Glenn and Adam develop a real relationship complete with the way they talk to each other to having relationship rules as well.

All and all this is a nice writing and directing debut by Rob Williams. It is an intelligent and funny film about relationships and gay culture. I look forward to seeing other films Rob does.