Finding North

This film, a chronicle of road trip combining a despondent gay man who has lost his lover to AIDS with a bossy Brooklyneese woman who still lives with her overbearing parents, is calculated to bring chuckles and tears. Unfortunately, the film is riddled with improbable coincidences, hokey sentimentality, and amateurish acting and filming. One hopes to like the film, and I do commend its portrayal of a gay male in reasonably unstereotypical fashion. The blatancy of the script's contrivances, however (they "meet cute," he just happens to come into her bank the day after she saw him almost leap to his death from a bridge - and she's carrying the shoe he left behind, she pursues him all the way to Texas with no encouragement or realization that he's gay, they learn "life lessons" after meeting his dead lover's crusty surrogate mother, etc.), just sabotaged the film for me. It made me squirm in uneasiness, and I never found myself relaxing in the hands of a filmmaker who believed in her material. Thumbs down here.

I enjoyed this movie, particularly John Benjamin Hickey's work. He is natural, relaxed, and did not force emotions, given the topic of the surviving partner of a gay man who had died of AIDS.

It dealt with the tremendous emotional loss, the lack of social validation of his relationship (not considered a husband/widow) in a poignant way. Hickey's character's attempt at suicide is not far-fetched. At the height of the initial wave of gay men dying from AIDS, their surviving partners/ spouses were often cut-out or barred from funeral services, denied access to homes they co-owned or rented, and had joint bank accounts emptied by hateful family members of the deceased.

While the bank teller character is more caricature, she lends the right humorous twist to this 'road trip/love story'. The various Texas characters are on-the-money, well-cast, and sweet.

I have watched this movie a number of times and enjoyed it very much, each time.

This movie owes much to the Screwball Comedy genre. A gay man retraces his newly deceased (AIDS) partner's footsteps in Denton, Texas with an unmarried, living at home at 30, kooky female bankteller who "can't say 'No.'" It's a sort of road movie/screwball comedy.

I didn't think it was a bad movie at all, and I laughed several times. I thought the character of Travis was a bit wooden and 2-D. I'm not sure why someone who just lost his love would not even cry, but be slightly angered at their death (brooding). There should have been a little more depth in his character. The movie is sad and silly, touching and corny.

Wolfe usually puts out decent movies, and this is another in their DVD stash.

It's great to see another movie where AIDS plays a role in the plot, but, by 1998 (and now), the disease does not have the impact that it should in this movie, like it did in movies like "Longtime Companion," "Philadelphia," and "It's My Party." The fact that the men are gay is almost secondary to this movie (unfortunately). I don't have a reason for why this is the case in this movie. It certainly dulls the impact of the story.

I give it 7 of 10. Funny, engaging, and well-made for the most part. ------ E.

SIDENOTE: Also, to be demeaning and saying that heterosexuals won't "get" this movie is condescending and wrong. I am not gay, and neither is my wife, and we both very much "got" this movie. One of the main problems with this statement by the gay/lesbian community goes back to the 70s and 80s way of thinking about movies and who they are "made for." This is wrong in every case. Wexler, the director, did a fine job showing that movies with queer themes should be viewed as universal, something the "old school thinkers" tend to want to negate.

Wow! What an excellent film! It's honesty is so touching. The relationships depicted here are what we need more of in movies today! The unlikely friendship that develops between these two is absolutely beautiful! SEE THIS MOVIE!

Beautifully quiet film about loss and love and grief.

The acting is superb in this indy film. The two leads are just so good they make the whole movie shine.

Their friendship grows from a bit of crazy.

The music and soundtrack are special too. A whole different feel, yet a bit old fashioned, but perfect.

All the supporting cast, like Rhonda's girlfriends and parents and all the Texas cast fill their roles with authenticity and panache.

The director and writer worked a kind of flawed perfection to creating Finding North. The story, although about AIDS, that isn't what the film is about. It is sweet and hard at the same time.