O Último Homem Hetero

I tried really hard--several times--to watch this movie, but it's just so bad in so many ways that I finally had to give up.

The two guys are not at all attractive, but I've seen both actors before separately and not thought that, so it's just something about their pairing in this movie. I cannot believe that anyone would want to spend even a few minutes with either of them.

But that's not all. Every word of the dialog is stilted and coy and totally unnatural, and it's delivered in weird, almost screechy voices that make my skin crawl. On top of all that, the very first scene (and it's a LONG one) is of a female stripper giving lap dances at a bachelor party, with either her boobs or her thonged butt bouncing about six inches from the camera most of the time. That is NOT what I want to see in a gay movie, or anywhere else.

Another reviewer said he's willing to give Mark Bessenger (this movie's writer and director) another chance, but I can't go along with that. Life's too short.

It reminded me of a gay version of the old hetero play, "Same Time Next Year," and I liked that part about the story the most. I always wondered what a gay version of that play might be like...with obvious differences because both lovers are men. And I think it worked. It was honest and it showed the dilemma that so many gay men face.

The Last Straight Man concerns a pair of friends who after a bachelor party for one of them, the groom and the gay best friend kick back and start confessing some frank sexual stories. Turns out Scott Sell has always wanted to experiment with the other side and Mark Cirillo looks forward to being experimented with.

This story is a kind of urban Brokeback Mountain where the two cowboys who are married after one summer of passion agree once a year to return to the Wyoming wilderness for what they tell the spouses and the world are hunting and fishing trips.

These two agree that on the same night once a year they would go back for a night of the same passion. For Sell it's to satisfy that gay side of his nature and for Cirillo who is a writer of romance novels it's to have an otherwise unattainable romance.

Four of these encounters are shown over a dozen years and we see the changes in the dynamic of the relationship.

This is a great two character gay study and Cirillo and Sell have some great chemistry between them.

Does it work out better for them than for Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger? You won't regret checking into The Last Straight Man to find out.

Over the last week, I've seen a few gay-themed movies, and oddly several containing Mark Cirillo; well...I can honestly say this is the only one I liked. He is of course type-cast as "the gay guy" (not sure he can overcome his "gay voice") and his long-time friend is played by Scott Sell, who absolutely comes off as a virile, sexually curious man who struggles with his feelings for his friend on the eve of what for most is a lifelong commitment. The pace of the film is perfect as we see the "progression" of their relationship from year to year. If you can tolerate the sex scenes (and warning: they are very blunt...think Brokeback Mountain), there really is a good mix of character-revealing dialogue, to the point where you start asking yourself who is really being honest to whom...more by what ISN'T being said. The only negative is the odd insertion of rambling, sappy monologues (can't blame Mark for this...he didn't write it). All in all, this was a very well-thought, entertaining "fluffy" work, which can actually be thought-provoking if you read between the lines.

A beautiful story, seductive told. A story about friendship becoming love, about attraction and about 12 years period , one night, a hotel room, talks and drinks and sex and doubts about the other.

The best virtue is the impecable simplicity.

Second - the acting.

And the fair, gentle exploration of relations, fears, responsabilities, decisions and shadows of ambiguity game.

The second good point remains the lovely realism. The book, the shots, the talk, the crumbs of humor are just beautiful pillars of a story pretending be only a confession about hidden side of near reality. It is more than a romance but a wise crafted portrait of choices.

The end - obvious, one of the provocative ones. But, in essence, just this is the point.