Jongens

Theme: "Jongens" is a coming of age drama. It's about accepting one's own homosexuality, and the struggle that comes along. The love story is pure and natural, set to the background of an all male sports team for teenagers.

Photography: "Jongens" (Boys) has the most incredibly and beautiful imagery you can wish for, both in landscapes as well as sports and love. This movie is almost entirely shot outside at Utrechtse Heuvelrug (Utrecht wolds), a very green part of the Netherlands, and nearby lakes. The surroundings breathe innocence and flourishing life. It challenges physical exercising. Camera man Melle van Essen has done a great job. Young actors Gijs Blom and Ko Zandvliet are brilliant.

This movie is excellent educational material for high school students because homophobia is still an issue world wide.

I'm not going to tell you the story, and you better don't read it elsewhere, just watch and enjoy it.

This movie is a rare jewel.

Out of the gay "coming-of-age" stories I have seen, this one hit home the hardest for me. I never saw such an accurate portrayal of how it felt to fall in love when I was around fifteen years old myself. The acting in "Jongens" is amazingly natural and believable. Although it is isn't a high budget film, it doesn't detract from the experience at all. The cinematography and music perfectly accompany the drama.

Loving someone and not being able to show it. The elation of being in love, the lying awake and dreaming of someone, the enormous heartache felt when you still feel that showing what you really feel is impossible, driving you to do things that disgust and hurt you inside.

All children around the age of 11-15 should see this movie. And adults will understand and appreciate the drama, too, whether they are straight or gay. I don't remember seeing such an authentic portrayal of gay teenage love and of the difficulty gay teenagers experience even in a tolerant country such as the Netherlands.

Fantastic to see a gay-themed movie without anything remotely explicit, but that still so clearly shows the enormous tension and love between the lead characters. The German movie "Sommersturm" (Summer Storm) came close, but contains scenes that, while realistic and innocent too, may be found a little offensive by homophobes. "Jongens" is therefore the perfect movie to show to mixed crowds, and to educate people on the normality of being gay. This is the kind of movie a gay kid might show his parents.

Huge compliments to the makers for such a fantastically realistic portrayal of gay teenagers. Let's hope this movie will be shown to children all over the world, for homophobia is still rampant in so many countries. And this sincere drama won't offend even the most uneducated and intolerant person, if they are willing to learn the truth.

I totally agree with the other reviewer. This is really a beautiful and wonderful film. Like what he/she has said, the cinematography and music are good, and the key point about " Loving someone and not being able to show it, ....................., driving you to do things that disgust and hurt you inside." is the most significant message of this movie that need to be told to the whole world no matter we are gay or not gay.

The two young leading actors has done a good job especially the one who plays the boy who hesitate to come out. The only thing that is not yet perfect is that the total play time is too short that they have only shown how the boy who hesitate to come out suffers but has not shown much about how his lover suffers from his jojo hesitation. Otherwise it will be perfect.

Although I have recorded it down with my DVD-recorder, I still hope that one of those big studios will appreciate this film and release it on DVD and Blu-ray, not just with Dutch subtitles but also with English subtitles so that we can share this wonderful film with our family and our friends all around the world. Here in the Netherlands, it seems that only big studio like Universal, Warner, Paramount, Fox and MGM will release Dutch films with English subtitles. Let's pray for that!

At this writing the previous reviews save one all heap praise on this sweet little movie. The lone dissenter hated it.

I understand both points of view. It's well done, nicely framed, and tells a story that flows quite naturally. It is subtle, and it shows us what's happening rather than tells us, which is what a good movie needs to do. On the other hand, we have seen this story and virtually every plot device it uses in countless other gay films from the last 30 years.

More than one review here compares Boys to Beautiful Thing. No, sorry. Not even close. Beautiful Thing is unflinching in its hard boiled, sardonic view of teen age angst. This movie should only be compared to Beautiful Thing by calling it Beautiful Thing Ultra Lite.

Now, that's not a bad thing, necessarily. And, evidently, for a lot of people, Ultra Lite is enough. I won't say I didn't enjoy it, because I did; it's very watchable. But if you go into this expecting a masterpiece, well, you may not find it. Especially if you've seen a lot of gay-themed movies that are really good.

sport. love. innocence. a simple story. and splendid images. one of films who are touching and spectacular for its profound simplicity. because nothing is new, nothing is great - except, maybe, the last scene- but the science to present the expressions of an age, the pieces of sport as frame of special friendship, the emotion and desire and shy reactions and courage, family crisis and fight to be the image of the others about you are the virtues of a film who real impress. the young lead actors, the stories around the boys, the scenes of joy, the beauty of age and the nature, all only parts of an ordinary expressions of youth are the ingredients who transforms in a kind of experience the film.