Loggerheads

I saw this film last night at the San Francisco Frameline Film Festival (6/20/05). This is a profound and moving filmgoing experience. I don't really want to say much about it but I encourage people to see it. One thing I particularly liked about it was the use of the Carolina locales. The film suggests that there's a whole world out there that Gay people have been deprived of. Yes, major cities like San Francisco and New York have been Gay turf for a long time. LOGGERHEADS dares to make the statement that we have to right to belong everywhere comfortably be it "the heartland" or the urban center. This film really is about "the heartland" -- a place where people have to grapple with their most personal issues and come out as better, stronger individuals. Between seeing LOGGERHEADS and Gregg Araki's MYSTERIOUS SKIN this week, I think the so-called "Gay Film" has really come of age.

This isn't a tidy little movie with a predictable end, predictable characters nor script— rather this is a compelling, profoundly moving film refreshing in how delicate it is. The performances are nuanced and the dialogue and story lines have a verisimilitude that left me feeling touched by the characters. They felt "real." That is rare in any film— that quality where you stop watching actors and start watching characters and feel their pain, hopes, dreams. I only saw this movie by accident as my boyfriend and I got to the theater to see another film which happened to be sold out and seats were available for this film. Lucky for me.

I caught this film at RiverRun Film Festival in NC. I enjoyed Kirkman's earlier film, "Dear Jesse," and I was amazed at how his filmaking had matured in such a short time. This is one gorgeous film, and it was well received at RiverRun. I love Kirkman's writing, and I was impressed with how he balanced the complexity of the three story lines. He could have dumbed down the script to spoon feed information to the audience, but instead he chose to use sound and dialogue to reveal the time line of the three story lines to the audience.

The cinematography was well done and showed the beauty of Asheville and the Carolina coastline. The performances by Kip Pardue, Bonnie Hunt, and Tess Harper were excellent. Most of the reviews I've read have emphasized Hunt, perhaps because of her name recognition and the fact that this is a first dramatic role for her, but Tess Harper's performance was equally riveting, and I hope she gets more attention for it.

This is a rare film, one which moved me tremendously, but whose greatest power I felt as the haunting music of Mark Geary played over the end titles. Though I'd been a bit teary as several of the characters finally met at the film's conclusion, it was after the curtain went down, so to speak, that I really found myself crying as the impact of what I'd seen sank in. As another reviewer stated, this film shows how far the "gay movie" has come in just over a decade. The sophistication and complexity of the story, the depth of the performances, and the artistry of the writing/directing make Loggerheads a truly outstanding film. One comment: let's stop saying that an actor like Kip Pardue is "brave" for playing a gay part. He's an actor, and a good one at that, who chooses a part for what it offers him as an artist, and more power to him for that. The truly brave actor is an openly gay one who plays a gay role without concern that this will prevent him from playing straight parts in the future. No matter how many times Kip plays gay, assuming he is straight, he will have no trouble being cast in a straight role, not in 2005.

Kudos to Tim Kirkman for assembling a marvelous cast to tell the poignant story of "Loggerheads," a 2005 independent production filmed in North Carolina. "Loggerheads" (the title refers to large turtles as well as the normal meaning of the word) tells three different stories in three different time periods. The stories eventually intertwine. The first takes place in 1999 and stars Kip Pardue as Mark, an HIV-positive young man working to preserve the loggerheads. Kip is sleeping on Kure Beach in North Carolina until he is taken in by George (Michael Kelly), who lets him stay in the motel he manages.

In the second story, which takes place in 2000, an unhappy woman (Bonnie Hunt) who lives with her mother (Michael Learned) wants desperately to find the child she gave up for adoption but isn't having any luck until she meets a detective.

The third story is in 2001 and concerns a Christian couple, a minister (Chris Sarandon) and his wife (Tess Harper) who must come to grips with a sad family situation, but the minister's faith holds him back.

All three stories are beautifully told and acted. The normally funny Bonnie Hunt is here in a serious role, and she tears at the heart, with Learned offering down to earth, quiet support - they are an ideal mother and daughter. The juvenile-looking Pardue gives a sensitive performance as someone who seems totally alone, at odds with his world and has given up making sense of it. As the minister, Chris Sarandon is powerful as a good man who believes in a punishing God and of a different opinion than his normally acquiescent wife, Harper, who has a tough decision to make. There are two other standouts: Michael Kelly as George, who befriends Mark, and Ann Pierce, an Olympia Dukakis lookalike, as Harper and Sarandon's wise neighbor.

Though the pace of the film is a little slow, the stories are intriguing enough to hold the viewer, as are the performances. It's also very well photographed. One IMDb poster stated the ending was clichéd - perhaps it was, but it was nevertheless satisfying. This is a film from a director/writer who has something to say - catch it if you see it for rent or on the Sundance channel.