Encontro no Café

Although Coffee Date got a little too weird for me it does have a definite amusement value. I'm so jealous of Jonathan Bray because I have a brother and he never fixed me up with Wilson Cruz whom I actually met many years ago.

Jonathan Silverman who is Bray's brother fixes up Bray with a computer date whom he has to meet in one of those Starbucks type coffee houses. It's with someone named Kelly. Expecting a woman Kelly turns out to be Wilson Cruz. Bray then spends the rest of the film first denying he's gay and then trying it on for size.

Before the film is over a whole lot of people wind up doing a lot of soul searching and genders are bent to a considerable degree. I won't say more, but it gets too weird and coincidental for me.

But with Wilson Cruz's presence, that's always a plus sign.

I just loved "COFFEE DATE" , It makes me what to grab a cup, just kidding. Its nice to see that an independent feature can look great, be well acted and be enjoyable to watch. Child star Wilson Cruz makes a great transition from awkward teenager to sexy leading man with actress Elaine Hendrix as the surprise favorite "hag" to Wilson's character. Stewart Wade has the touch on romantic comedy. He creates character's that i feel Like I know. However,my favorite gem in the movie is Jason Stuart. Who starts out as the"office gossip" makes the transition as the dependable shoulder to"lean on" and the voice of reason in the film. It really showcases his talent as the go to character actor.

This film is so nearly there. There are more than one or two genuinely heart rending moments in it. There are several characters of almost three dimensions. A little more work and it could have been all the things it almost is - subtle, touching and funny. It's just slightly amateur. Not much, but enough to take the edge off what it could have been. TLA Releasing seem to put out a fair number of movies a bit like this. Sweet tales of modern gay life. Gay movies you want to love, that sometimes bring a tear (just the one) to the eye and have you laughing (a couple of times), but that don't quite cut deep enough to make them memorable or watchable twice. This coffee-date does have charm and looks, but he lacks substantial charisma.

(There is also a technical problem with Coffee Date; the sound mixing is all over the place. One minute the background is high and the dialogue low, then an angle changes and it's all different again. This is a pretty basic requirement these days, decent sound design and mixing).

How straight is straight sexually and emotionally ? Or To be or not to be ? After a viewing this rather distant in the past film of sexual ambiguity I was left with a feeling that I had watched a semi-comic film that had rather shaky answers to both of these questions. Jonathan Bray plays the straight man who accidentally meets up with a gay man on a blind date called Kelly. Bray thinks he is going to meet a woman, and finds to his gay panic that he has landed himself on the wrong side of his sexual orientation. Panic subsides when he realises he likes the man, and for most of the duration of the film he verbally fights off anyone who comes to the conclusion that he is gay and not straight. Witty lines flow quite nicely, and the film has a lot of smiles and laughs to offer and the acting was mostly good. I wondered at the beginning if mister straight was gay after all and I will give no spoilers except to say that rather heavy handed signals in the dialogue led to a rather obvious conclusion. A twist at the end concerning mister straight man's brother came as a surprise, if a rather a stereotypical one. In fact there are quite a few stereotypes of gay men in this film and to a certain extent I thought mister straight was rather condescendingly nice to them. Two scenes I rather liked. The inevitable shower scene so often used in gay films is shown before the film even starts, and it is mister straight under the shower looking the perfect dream of sexual desire. This will throw some viewers off course as he is handsome and imaginatively for the viewer ' available,' and the second scene is a rather nasty homophobic attack that undermines the comic premise in the film that most people are gay friendly. I quite enjoyed my own accidental viewing of this gay film of the past, but came away with the feeling that a sequel to the film may have added something more, and something better for the satisfaction of a lot of gay viewers.

There seems to be a nice niche market going for high production value gay themed comedy scripts, which also manage to attract one or two relatively known/good named actors. "Coffee Date" definitely fits this genre, and we are treated to Wilson Cruz playing his "butch" but vulnerable character. However, the script is also high on camp (almost mandatory) and not a lot of substance or thought-provoking value, since we really have to suspend our disbelief on a few occasions here. There is also a tendency for at least one "over the top" actor (the "Karen" of the group if you will) in this case played by the protagonist's mother. But it's a "fun", so if you're looking for some brain-candy for a date or just a movie-night with gay friends, this should do it.