Nothing more here than a standard, cliché, romantic comedy that you would find in a dozen Adam Sandler films or poorly written African American comedies except for that it focuses on a homoesexual relationship. None of the characters are believable, the tone is mostly a farce but there is not a lot of intelligence behind it.
I believe this film is getting a decent buzz, primarily because the two leads are actually gay and rarely do we see supposed "real-life" portrayal of gays in romantic comedies.
The filmmakers intent was to show what it is really like to be in a homosexual relationship and that they have the same feelings, concerns, desires, etc as heterosexual couples. The main problem is that the tone is so absurd and light and none of it seems like real life at all, you don't believe or engage in the characters at all so the message is lost. I am not gay and did not leave the film feeling any more informed about the difficulties of gay relationships or anything even close.
There are some funny scenes and lines but also many awkward moments and irrelevant scenes just thrown in, and dialouge that just doesn't work. Many parts tried to be over the top and absurd just for the sake of doing so, nothing real or organic about them. The acting and pacing also needed work. I just didn't engage or become interested in the characters at any level.
It didn't need to be as heavy or shocking as Queer as Folk or other gay films but moving the tone more toward Kissing Jessica Stein would have served it much better. Beleiving in the characters as actual people instead of over the to characatures would have let me empathize and allowed me to learn a lot more than I did
The 9-11 references were empty and useless. I lived in NY at the time and if your're going to try to capture it at least give it some time, attention, and drama.
Any I don't mean to focus on the gay aspect, it fails as a film period, straight, gay or other, but the producers/filmmakers are promoting it this way so that will inevitably be the focus.
I'd be interested in hearing any opinions from anyone gay who saw the film to see if they felt it represented their struggles properly or if they were maybe just happy to see a light comedy focused on gay life.
Will be interesting to see what happens if/when it is released
