Holding the Man

We saw it last night and I was crying within the first five minutes!!!!

I've read the book and absolutely loved (and hated) it. It was such a powerful book for that time in my life and slapped me silly with the raging emotions it evoked within me.

I loved it so much because of the story telling, the characters, the connections and the relevance to my life as a young sexually active man coming to terms with his sexuality. I hated it because it made me cry so bloody much and I fell in love with both of them and it was so gut wrenching. It touched me in a way I will never forget and the film does that experience justice.

The acting is spot on and the chemistry between the two is perfect. It was an interesting choice to use the same actors for the early school years, but given the importance of the connection between Tim & John I and understand why this was done and I don't think it hurts the film in any way. The surrounding cast is equally exceptional and Anthony Lapaglia's performance was wonderful.

This is an exceptional love story that is released at the perfect time, when marriage equality and same sex relationship rights is at the forefront of society again.

I am a bit of a hard ash when it comes to rating and reviewing movies, and this movie hit all of the marks for me. It was sublime, and had me literally sobbing toward the end.

Being from America, I was not familiar with the book or the story, and in fact, only got the movie because of the cover art. I wasn't really looking for a movie that dealt with the early days of HIV/AIDS, and in fact, tend to steer clear of them because they are usually done so poorly, but HTM deals with it not only realistically, but with great humanity. In the end, the movie isn't about the disease, but the love these two men shared.

And what a love it must have been. Most of us could only ever hope for a love like that, and never actually find it. In that regard, it reminds me of Bridegroom. Both of those films leave you with the hope that fairy tale love really can exist in the real world.

...showing the story of two teenagers through to their early 30s. Both the book and movie were unknown to me, so I came at this without expectations. This movie succeeds with material that is very familiar--if not overly familiar--to gay men like myself. That in itself is quite an accomplishment.

What starts out as a simplistic story of high school romance becomes an epic tale spun out for 127 minutes. I was surprised by the honesty of the story, and surprised that the two lead actors could seamlessly--and convincingly--go from teenagers to adults. It is not easy to take everyday events and stitch them up into an epic. This movie does that, and it does it well.

If I had known the plot in advance, I probably wouldn't have gone near this film with a 10-foot pole. I'm glad I didn't know because I would have missed a really good movie.

If you're young and gay and want to get an accurate look at what life was like for us in the '70s and '80s, this is the movie to see. For Americans, that it's set in Australia is irrelevant; the story was the same.

As with most films adapted from the book, you'll only get half the story in a movie. The acting is superb and the story relatively faithful to the original novel but it has some flaws. Namely, I found the mixing up of dates confusing. They didn't really need to jump back and forwards, I'm not sure why they did that. There is a lot of sex with spunky guys which will get on the wrong side of any homophobes or the conservatives but it is a neccessary part of the story as it depicts a lot of how the gay male community interacts (I'm gay, I can vouch for this). Ultimately it ends in tragedy and is quite a moving film but having been one of my favourite books, I will always prefer that to this.

I wasn't searching for a movie about aids. The subject usually gives me a very uneasy feeling. I don't want to remember those days when some very good friends of mine died in agony in front of my eyes. I was quite young back then, and did I really understand what happened? No, when you're young life looks endless. So when this movie, unexpectedly for me, because I had not read anything about it, brought up the aids subject, I had to take a deep breath. But the movie is so well executed that it is much more than an aids drama. This movie is a piece of human history and every high school student should see it. I am in my 50s and now aids is something of the past, thanks to great medicine. It cuts through my heart that young men like ones in this film had no chance at all. Especially in the 80s gay liberation wasn't that far, and so much human needs have been denied to these men. Thank god society has improved on these levels, and it only could by telling these important stories.