Rialto

Beautiful film. Paced beautifully and acted superbly. A heartbreaking look into the life of a closeted man - struggling to come to terms with himself and the effects it has on the people around him.

Totally gripping from start to finish. Vaughn-Lawlor is nothing short of stunning in complete immersion in this role. There is not a second in which I did not believe I was watching a real person with many layers of suffering and confusion about many different issues.

His character does some despicable things but I completely understood where those actions came from, and that he had done all he could do over many years to avoid their manifestation. His humanity and good heart and desire to do the right thing was never in question, even as he staggers through scene after scene showing a man falling apart yet not yet willing to end it all.

Loved this film. Love Vaughn-Lawlor in it. Hollywood would never even get close to making a film like this, which is why I've almost completely given up on watching them. Thank god for Asian, British, European, Scandinavian and Australian films. So much richer, deeper, human and willing to tackle earthier subject matter than milquetoast Hollywood.

Good performances and solid drama makes this movie an interesting and sometimes hard to watch movie. It makes you feel for its characters, their poor situations and its conclusion makes you wonder what would happen next. A good watch.

I enjoyed this film very much. "Rialto" is a powerful, impeccably directed drama about a middle-aged married man who becomes infatuated with a street hustler and continues to pursue him while his life falls apart. He's also grieving the recent loss of his father and lives with a family he's become increasingly estranged from. The performances in the film are all excellent, notably Tom Vaughan-Lawlor who is in almost every scene of the film.

"Rialto" reminded me a lot of the "angry young man" dramas the UK produced so well in the 60's. There's a slow, almost melancholy mood to the film, but it's never boring. The ending took me by surprise, but at the same time it felt strangely liberating.

This is another example of how the European film industry remains light years ahead of the U.S. Hollywood just isn't bold or brave enough to produce works like this. The film is bleak, but it never stops being intriguing.

A middle aged married man from Dublin struggles to stay afloat as his life and relationships with others deteriorates, his knowledge of who and what he is becomes increasingly acute and the structures he's built his life around begin to cascade and tumble. The far from uncommon drink, depression and betrayal invariably plays out, albeit with a not so common betrayal perspective, which is the only piece of the story that really differentiates it from many things you've seen before. Fine performances compensate for the dot to dot editing, with the conclusion that what you have just seen is generally played out with a myriad of variations on the theme the world over - every day, every week, every year. You may well be playing it out now within your own variation.