I attended a screening in SF, but found myself unable to speak while the director and two stars were standing before me. So now that I've found my voice again, here goes: While he falls short of achieving his goals, I believe it is because he has set the bar too high for himself. It seems he wanted to do so much in this film, that it was impossible for him to say everything that he wanted to. I am sure that making a film about gay men can be difficult. We want the love story of "Beautiful Thing", the comedy of "Trick", the hunky cast of "Broken Hearts Club", and the tear-jerker sadness of "It's My Party". Mr. Swain tries to do, be, create all of these things in one package. He came respectably close to doing it.
I enjoyed the film, it felt contrived in places, which may have had as much to do with the editing as it does with the fact that this is Mr. Swain's first film. Given time, his voice and vision will mature, and I can't wait to see what happens as it does.
See this film, we need more like it.
