Just Say Love

I tired very quickly of Guy's helplessness and whining and began to focus on that horrific lump on the left side of his face, which I think needs a biopsy.

"Guy" (Matthew Jaeger) is sitting on a park bench contemplating Plato when he is approached by the rather uncouth builder "Doug" (Robert Mammana) who has heard that this is a place to go for some easy sex. Initially, the former is uninterested but a conversation sets things in motion that starts the ball rolling on a relationship that goes on to challenge both men's perceptions of what is gay, straight, and of what love actually means. I rather liked this even though it is scripted to within an inch of it's life - "do you realise how dead that food is?". The gloomily lit photography looks, much of the time, as though the entire thing has been shot on one camera and edited together using sellotape and lots of good will and it has a stolid presentation that takes some getting used to. All of that said, however, once it builds up an head of steam there is an obvious, quite natural and basic, dynamic between "Guy" and "Doug" and it does work well in this theatre-style multi-set one stage environment. The two performances - particularly Jaeger's - are sensitive, occasionally funny and the dialogue looks at attraction and stereotype but in a slightly observational, and therefore less static fashion. The ending is slightly predictable - despite efforts to tempt a stray cat with vegetarian tuna, but proves testament to the triumph of love over almost all human-made rules and constricts and spins a theory about "Sleeping Beauty" that you're unlikely to have encountered before.

I started watching it thinking it was going to be a how to i erase this.

The back and forth of the conversation on the bench, my thought was this guy should get up and run. But it was brilliantly written that i had to keep watching their exchange. Was the guy not quite right? Were they both not quite right?

The acting of both characters was really spot on and believable.

I have had conversations with someone that I was not sure if i should run away. And stayed.

The fantasy part of doug returning was confusing . Did he really or was it a dream?

I watched it until the end.

And did not think how do I get this time back? As with many movies.

Really liked it.

As to my crazy conversation, we became friends. And i think of him often. And hope he is safe, he moved away.

The uncluttered staging of this work allowed the viewer to concentrate on the performers and what was being said. The impact was visceral, and yet the subject matter of the dialogue intellectually stimulating. Performances by Jaeger and Mammana were outstanding. The emotional intensity just below the surface was gripping. Someone finally expressed what I have felt in my life.

Scenes like waiting at the corner were so expressive....no need for words! I've been there.

For a love story, this movie is oddly formal, stylized and cold. It is a lot like kabuki, the highly formal, highly stylized classical Japanese dance/drama. It is the most tightly scripted and choreographed movie I have ever seen: not one word, not one gesture by either character is spontaneous. It feels more like very expertly executed computer animation than like two human men falling in love.

I think the basic problem is the Platonic philosophy that dominates and runs insistently through the whole play. That philosophy - that the body is only a shallow, essentially meaningless reflection of spiritual reality - is itself so cold and so formal that it practically demands a treatment like this.

That is sad. This could have been touching and meaningful, but it ends up being just very well executed technique on the part of everyone involved: the director, actors, set designer, cinematographer, etc. Like kabuki, it is fascinating to watch, but the fascination is purely intellectual, just like Plato. It is a peculiar and unsatisfying way to tell a love story.