Naked As We Came

A very stupid, plodding, heavy-handed, badly written, badly directed, VERY badly acted (especially the "dying" mother who looks like she could wrestle lions in a circus), extremely tiresome movie about extremely unpleasant spoiled people with way too much money and way WAY too much unnecessary drama. The mother is dying. So what? People die. People as obnoxious as this bunch should die a lot sooner.

For some perverted, homophobic reason, many gay reviewers of gay movies LOVE to declare that a gay movie is not "really" gay. This is one of those movies. It isn't really a gay movie.

Oh, yeah? When two of the four characters in a movie are gay men, and the ONLY sex in the movie is between those two men (who are - of COURSE! - hot and buff and West-Hollywood hairless and gorgeous), and the two women in the movie are ugly, strident, manipulative, shrieking, raging and/or whining, moaning b!itches... THAT'S not a gay movie? Why? Because the phrase "eating out" is not in the title?

Ahhhh. NOW I understand!

Honestly, I think this is one of the best gay theme movies in 2013. Despite it's low budget film, everything run perfectly well. The great part is the casting. Richard LeMay, the director, really done a careful and brilliant job to pick up the only six casts. Well, he is also the writer, I guess he know know pretty much a fit character to his own story.

Like I said, it's low budget. The casts only six and 98% appeared only the fourth main actors and main location just in big house with big garden. But, surprisingly, I didn't get bored, a good cinematography really helped with that problem.

About the story, I have to say that it's not really original. I mean, I have seen some gay interest movie with the same main story, sick mother/father/children, broken family members, guilt, reconciliation, and new future, but somehow, I like "Naked As We Came" twisted ending. Well, I don't really expect that ending and still can't figured it out yet, but mostly I have some in mind. The ending really help with whole plot story.

Love the character. Actually, this movie still a simple story, I figure it out why Richard LeMay picked conspicuous characters for the four main actors. It was great, like to see every character develop as it's be. The only lack is Benjamin Weaver's character as Ted Kingsley. He has the worst acting and likely incomplete character.

The ending? Well, I guess everyone has their own dream ending. One last thing, I think this movie more likely called as family movie than gay theme/interest movie.

I'm highly recommended this movie. I just hope it has bigger budget, could be very promising movie.

The two women in the movie are the only ones worthy of any mention. However, as some other user already pointed out, Laura (played by Karmine Alers) is a cliché of the control freak and her singing moment is too soapy to be taken seriously. S. Lue McWilliams, however, is great as Lily. I think she doesn't over do it - even though she has cancer, she's the one in charge of keeping the movie light and entertaining with her brutal honesty. The weakest links are obviously the men and their expressionless faces. By looking at LeMay previous work, you can tell they were chosen just because of their physique - but he failed to create any kind of connection or memorable dynamic between the two of them even when they have some "intimacy". I did not hate it, I had a good time with it and we should also appreciate the fact that homosexuality is taken as an everyday thing and not a big revelation or the heartbreaking point in a movie that was already battling with other clichés of its own.

The line that became the title does say it all. Naked As We Came into this world and naked is how we go. The rest is all good and bad baggage picked up along the way.

Brother and sister Ryan Vigilant and Karmine Alers are summoned to the bedside of their mother S. Lue McWilliams who is dying of cancer and wants to leave the world on some kind of good terms with her children. Her late husband was a U.S. Senator who was looking good to rise higher, but then inexplicably just gave up his career. At the end of the film we get a big hint as to why.

On the family estate they meet one hunky gardener in Benjamin Weaver who has many talents, writing, cooking, and seducing. But it's the son Ryan Vigilant whom he aims for and gets. He's on a mission, but in the process he becomes closer to McWilliams than either of her kids were.

Naked As We Came is an interesting character study of three people bound by blood, but as disparate as they get and the outsider who if he doesn't get them together at least brings about a better understanding.

Nice solid performances with the four leads. As the film is spent 95% of the time on the estate, the film bears comparison to Long Day's Journey Into Night. Not anywhere as good as the O'Neill classic, still Naked As We Came has its own definite merits.

Better than expected.... It's usually a danger sign when the same person writes, directs, produces a film, but in this case, it worked out well. Good choices of actors too. Elliot and Laura are brother and sister who finally go visit mom, who is in the late stages of cancer. They are surprised to find "Ted" living in the house with her, and part of the plot is figuring out how he fits into the picture. There's a love story (or maybe its just a "lust story"...), some family secrets, good times, bad times. The mother did an amazing job as someone realizing her time is almost up, and wants to connect with their kids before she passes away, and maybe impart some lessons she has learned along the way. Similar to Big Eden, from 2000 ! Family members return to the family home to care for a loved one, meet the locals, make life-changing decisions. Elliot is a little bit schizo, but if everything went smoothly, we wouldn't have much of a plot line. The final voice-over epilogue was a little weird... they probably should have filmed another scene, or maybe it didn't come out as they planned, so they tried to wrap it up with the voice-over. Good story. pretty realistic. Lemay gets credit for not making the characters too campy and predictable.