Between Love & Goodbye

This film about falling in and out of love has an interesting premise: What brings men together and what tears them apart? Apart from the premise, however, it is pretty bad.

Two young hot guys (an American and a Frenchie) meet cute in a bar, decide they love each other "pour toujours" very quickly, and then, after a few years together, when one of the partners renews ties with a sibling, all begins to swiftly and dramatically unravel. From one extreme of sickeningly sweet "I thought you two were going to last," the film drops quickly into obsession, selfishness and pathology.

Most of what makes the film so annoying is that the writing is overwrought; and though I know some of the dialog is likely intentionally so, it does not ring true even in context. When the couple is falling in love, for example, the dialog seems to come straight out of Harlequin; and when they are fighting it goes towards bitchiness that goes beyond what one might expect from the characters.

The result is that one does not know whether the protagonists are meant to be understood or scorned; and the central acting certainly does not help, with two main actors who do not seem to register beyond type, and are not strong enough to effectively portray an potential Jungian undertones.

In short, I was never quite sure whether to hate or feel for these people, or which one I was to feel for if I was meant to take sides. Was it intended to be a gay "War of the Roses," or some kind of queer morality tale? Aside from one increasingly interesting performance (the lesbian roommate), and one HORRID performance (the sibling, perhaps a victim of one-note writing), there is just so little that stands out.

I give it 8/10 I wont deny that there are some acting issues in some parts of the film. Despite some acting errors and issues the film and its plot are as one other reviewer stated to summarize are event that can and probably has happened to a few ( you must watch the film to discover for yourself what happened). In short the drama the two main character put themselves through is nothing short of what is consider a destructive relationship, and for some including my self have experience such type of relationship. After all how does one learn through experience, and if you were lucky enough to avoid such destructive events, then here is your chance to experience what one might had experience. a Plus is a non-traditional ending, that moved my heart to great sadness.

First, the good news is that this movie has some interesting concert scenes, the soundtrack is pretty good, and it is quite entertaining. (In the same way a train wreck is entertaining. You want to look away, but you can't.) That said, I saw this at the NY screening on 1/30/09, and it is certainly among the worst ten films I have seen in my life. Probably top five. Perhaps the worst, period.

My main complaint is with the writer (and director) Casper Andreas. His script is absolute garbage. He has enormous potential as a director, but he needs to learn that he shouldn't poison his own movies with his own words.

The dialogue is totally awful - the experience is akin to being force-fed heaping spoonfuls of sugar until your body falls into a coma. The lines is so forced, so overwrought, so charged with false drama, that I didn't believe the story I was being told.

I would be able to forgive Andrea if he had written it in a single, late-night, drug-induced rage the day before shooting.

But no. Speaking at the Q&A following the screening, he mentioned that he had written it around ten years ago.

Ten. Years.

Ten years, and this is the result? I felt embarrassed for Andreas. What a waste of the talent of his cast. What a waste of twelve bucks.

I saw this movie today, and had to post my own review after reading the "awful" review that had been posted on it. I don't think that review was fair at all - I started wondering while reading it, whether or not I was looking at a review for the same movie I just saw. I couldn't understand why the person who wrote the review found it so bad. Having the movie fresh in memory, and since I watch a lot of gay movies, I wanted to give this movie a more positive review - this one was one of the better gay movies I've seen; it had some originality. In comparison to some of the other (too predictable)gay movies I've seen, it provides some previously unseen conflicts and themes. I also didn't think the dialog was cheesy. It seemed pretty real to me. On occasion, some of the things said are harsher than I've experienced, but that's all. The actors are great, they have charisma, and like I said, I believe the story they are performing. Maybe if they hadn't been good, some of the dialog would be bad, but I didn't at all think that it was as it is. Altogether, I think this movie is alright. And the soundtrack IS great. The lead singer doesn't have the most amazing voice, but it's all really edgy and original. Kind of like the movie. :) In addition, though, I'd like to say that the movie really touched me. That not being in a totally positive way. I might be a little too emotional - I get that a lot - but I do like having a nice feeling in my body after watching a movie. And this movie contains a lot of arguing, a lot of hurtful things are said - and that really got to me. Again - that wouldn't have happened if the dialogs and script were bad, would it. So watch it if you like gay movies :)

well, i do watch a lot of gay movies and a lot of them are awful. i mean, really awful. so... i had absolutely no expectation that this movie is gonna be good. and... of course this movie wasn't superb. but... hey, this movie wasn't so bad. this movie was much better than now classic gay movie latter days.

i felt the hatred feeling towards each other, obsession, jealousy are genuine. i went through those things. didn't you? and two of the songs that featured are pretty good (especially the first one played during the opening title)

there are bad things. cheesy dialog, over-used yellow filter, stupid slow motion... but i didn't fast-forward a bit.

if you love gay films (for just guilty pleasure), watch this, rather than latter days or velocity of gary.