User reviews

Hollywood is always a sinister setting, even for a comedy and "The Dying Gaul" is no exception. I don't intend to divulge the ins and outs of the story because that should be your job, but I feel compelled to talk about it because it kind of stacked all over me like some kind of alien jelly. I always loved Campbell Scott and I suspect I always will. He plays the devil - The "I'll give you a million bucks if you abandon completely yourself, your principles, your loyalties" - kind of devil - He is married to the splendid Patricia Clarkson ( part Meryl Streep part Wayland Flower's Madame) and the object of his temptation is Peter Sarsgaard, one of the best creepiest actors ever to appear on film. It may be a personal thing but he gives me the willies. The film is an uncomfortable journey through a strangely familiar landscape that becomes darker and darker. I will take my chances and recommend it.

I would be hard pressed to name a trio of actors that I could be more excited to see than the stars of his film. Been rooting for Clarkson for years; we all know Sarsgaard is Oscar material in the years to come; Scott is (to me) even better than his dad. So I was waiting for this, via Craig Lucas, for a long time.

My cousin had warned me (we are both gay) that the play delivered a memorable first half (in a positive way) and just as memorable second half (in how bad it was). Clearly the screenplay did nothing to change this, alas.

The three leads were, no surprise, just excellent, and seeing them was well worth the time and cost. Oh PeterS, get back to work we need more of you! But dear Mr Lucas, when characters behave in ways that show no logic, it feels like a cheat.

Fascinating idea, beautiful setting, some splendid dialogue and then disaster sets. I say "6" and wish everyone involved great success in the years to come.

"The Dying Gaul" feels like an updated "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" set in Hollywood instead of academia. But it gradually veers towards "Fatal Attraction" as the opening jabs at commercial film-making, with lots of name and title dropping that seem to be writer Craig Lucas's revenge on compromises he made for his successful "Prelude to a Kiss," give way to catastrophic psychological manipulation.

The initial Hollywood commentary is emphasized through the settings, as the movie producer, Campbell Scott, and his ex-writer/liberal activist/household and children manager wife, Patricia Clarkson, live in an extraordinary house with a rippling pool and ocean view. Their financial success is wielded like a weapon as the camera restlessly swoops around all their possessions, household help and scenic property. The emotional price he's paid for this is clear as Scott's "Jeffrey" could be in "Glengarry Glen Ross" (to drop film titles like he does) as he'll clearly do anything to seal a deal.

Peter Sarsgaard drives on to the studio lot and into their lives with a completely different character from his four other released films this year, with inflections and body language that only occasionally get a bit too flamboyant as affectations of an out gay writer discussing issues of sexuality in the movies and his late lover. His grief and need for human warmth is so palpable that it is even believable that after failing with psychological counseling and Buddhism to deal with it, he clutches at what used to be called spiritualism, here delivered through the internet, shown visually both in the written word and the actors talking to the camera like reading aloud from their computer screens, edited effectively in the best key scenes with real life.

Clarkson is wonderful as she morphs from busy housewife lounging in a fetching bikini, to curious dabbler in the dark side, to woman scorned and revengeful manipulator. She may be the Ultimate Scary Mother, sexy, maternal and controlling, who while distraught over violent video games goes after the psyche. Unusually for how such a triangle has been portrayed in films (and the film is specifically set in 1995 as perhaps a more innocent time), we also get brief, sympathetic insight on another woman similarly affected by the writer's selfish actions that puts Clarkson's "Elaine" in perspective as she could have been portrayed as more of a brittle harpy. But each character alternately attracts and repels us.

In his directing debut Lucas does not well serve his own script, adapted from his play, as it could have been a lot tauter in exploring the slippery slope of ethics in human relationships, that all it takes is that one small step to deceive or keep secrets before one falls into the well. There could have been a lot fewer arty scenes in silhouette, at sunset, across water.

The Steve Reich music throughout becomes more irritating than tension-inducing.

While the title has something to do with the writer's long monologue about the significance of the Roman sculpture as an artist's way to make victims sympathetic, one is left here more with the feeling that these three folks deserve each other, though the collateral damage left in their wake is a tragedy.

Despite the earnest work of three talented actors, "The Dying Gaul" is a slow and ponderous film that betrays its stage origins. Unfortunately, the film opens with a scene that seems improbable, if not downright impossible, as a film producer attempts to purchase an original screenplay from a first-time writer who plays coy over principles, despite a million-dollar carrot. Before long, the producer seduces the writer, and the two men carry on an illicit affair behind the back of the producer's wife. However, the wife is intrigued after meeting the writer, and she begins to correspond with him in on-line chat rooms under the guise of a gay man. The sham that the wife uses to uncover the affair and psychologically harass the young writer would not fool anyone, let alone an educated writer, and the film falls apart from lack of credibility. Although Hitchcock may have been able to make lengthy scenes of two characters instant-messaging each other over a computer into classic cinema, director Craig Lucas has yet to hone those skills, and the instant-messaging exchanges are leaden to be polite. Fortunately, my watch has a dial that illuminates in the dark. The direction of the film in general is slowly paced, and there is little visual excitement or breaking through the boundaries of the stage-bound dialog.

Fortunately, the always-wonderful Patricia Clarkson plays the wife, and she does wonders with a part that is not intrinsically interesting. While Peter Sarsgaard generally falls into the "always-wonderful" category as well, his subtly mincing shtick as the gay writer seems as though it were lifted from the worst episodes of "Will and Grace." Sarsgaard played a gay (or bisexual) man far more convincingly in "Kinsey." While there certainly are effeminate and fey gay men, those stereotypes have already been played to death on screen, and a fresher concept would have been expected of an actor with the talents of Sarsgaard. Campbell Scott plays his part well, although, when a viewer's mind wanders to thoughts of how well Scott is aging, the actor is apparently not fully engaging the audience's attention.

"The Dying Gaul," while not a complete failure, is nonetheless a disappointment and little more than an acting exercise for three talented performers. The wordiness and leisurely pacing may have worked on stage, and the flimsy plot devices may also have played more credibly in the theater. However, on film, "The Dying Gaul" fails to engage or convince and ultimately falls flat.

I enjoyed this film, up to a point- and that point was almost exactly the half way mark, where the writer director chose to go the maudlin implausible route instead of sticking with what he had, which was wonderful.

To have three characters in conflict and resolve it without any fancy plot device would have been truly courageous, but sadly what started out so lovely descended into melodrama and tedium.

That being said, Craig Lucas is clearly a talent to watch, he did a marvelous job with the actors- particularly Peter Skaarsgard, who does wonderful work, and the script is smart and even touching in places.

Campbell Scott seemed miscast to me, wooden and distant at places but oddly brazen in others. I can't imagine a married studio executive actually touching and almost kissing a writer ON THE LOT. I found myself imagining what other actors would have done with the role, never a good sign. But then again, he was one of the producers, so Mr. Lucas had his hands tied.

All in all, the first act was so promising that I was angered by the way Lucas decided to end it.

I just saw this at the Seattle Film Festival, Peter Saarsgard was there to answer questions. The movie is extremely watchable for the first half of the way through, is built on a fascinating premise with interesting characters (a bisexual movie producer and his wife who reside in a Lifestyles of the Rich And Famous type beachside modern mansion, a young gay writer whose lover has died of AIDS), and builds to a pitch of extreme suspense. After that, however, the plot stumbles and the film's conclusion turns on a series of unbelievable events. I thought since the movie was based on a play, the plot would be clear, but it's almost as if the movie version was forced to cut out some important sequences, as there is never quite enough information about 1) how the woman obtains all her inside information on the writer, 2) how the writer's ex-wife was related to the characters and 3) most importantly, what happens to the characters at the end of the movie.

I went into the bathroom after the movie and joined a lineup of women who were also asking each, "What exactly happened there?" --- when it's not clear it's a sign of unclear movie-making.

Besides some of the plot holes that I still can't figure out, I was rather captivated by The Dying Gaul. For the love of God, someone give Peter Sarsgaard an Oscar already – if not for this movie, then just for everything he's ever done. Sarsgaard effortlessly steals every scene he's in! In The Dying Gaul he plays Robert, a gay screenwriter who is still mourning the death of his lover, Malcolm. He still sleeps with Malcolm's pajamas and puts them back into a Ziploc baggie at the end of each night. Robert writes a script based on Malcolm's slow and painful death and calls it The Dying Gaul.

Jeffrey (Campbell Scott) is a big time Hollywood producer who wants to make Robert's film… on the condition that Robert writes out all of the homosexual content. Jeffrey tells him, "Most Americans hate gay people, wouldn't you agree?" The irony is that Jeffrey is attracted to Robert and starts an affair with him, behind his wife's back. It gets more bizarre when Jeffrey's wife, Elaine (Patricia Clarkson), becomes obsessed with Robert. When she learns that her husband is sleeping with Robert, all hell breaks loose…literally. The depth that these characters go to in order to punish and torture each other is evil incarnate! The Dying Gaul is hard to follow at times, but it's brilliant, painful, shocking, and Sarsgaard deserves a damn Oscar already!

The acting is to die for; the cliff house is to die for; Peter Sarsgaard is to die for. In other words, the movie's not ALL bad; it just falls apart really quick - and unfortunately in just those key plot moments, so you walk out of the theater ready to slice it like a Ginsu, then talk about something else.

Like, did they really have to beat us over the head about the POISON PLANT that JUST HAPPENS to grow in the back yard. Didn't see that coming. Or about emailing with a dead person? Huh? Or how Peter conveniently FORGETS he told that woman his favorite online chat site. Oops. Or when one of the characters admits to being bisexual... HELLO, YA THINK??

Go. See it. Really. I MEAN it - if you want to get out of the house and/or satisfy your curiosity. But at the same time, prepare to cringe when Sarsgaard screams like a little girl during his orgasm. Actually, any little girl would sound like a grizzled old lumberjack next to Sarsgaard's orgasmic tittering.

How to describe "The Dying Gaul." That is a challenge. It is very much like a play (which makes sense, seeing as it was adapted from one), and it makes one of the most skillful transitions from stage-to-screen that I have ever seen. It works like a play, but visually it thinks of itself as a movie. Confusing I know, but a person who has seen the movie will know what I'm talking about.

In terms of what genre "The Dying Gaul" fits into, it's more of a drama/mystery. It has a slight noirish tone to it, but this is not "The Big Sleep." The beginning is a drama, but its transition to mystery is perfectly executed with such a subtle build-up that looking back, it's hard to believe that the beginning was from the same movie as the end of it, or that it all was accomplished in 101 minutes.

Robert (Peter Saarsgard) has written a brilliant script after the death of his lover, Malcolm (Bill Camp). Movie producer Jeffrey Tishop (Campbell Scott) loves it, and wants to make it into a movie, but he insists that Robert change the relationship from homosexual to heterosexual. Jeffery's wife, Elaine (Patricia Clarkson) becomes interested in Robert, and then a few secrets are spilled which changes everything.

"The Dying Gaul" is really about the three characters. Everyone else has only a few token lines of dialogue at best that simply flesh out the story. The three actors-Saarsgard, Scott, and Clarkson, develop their roles well, and the three of them are fully three-dimensional. Ironically, while Saarsgard may have the most interesting character on paper, he's actually rather flat compared to Clarkson and Scott. Clarkson plays the housewife who still has a job even though she could easily live off of her husband's wealth, and she's not as clueless as many other movie housewives are.

Campbell Scott, though, is the real joy of "The Dying Gaul." At first he's a money-obsessed movie producer (the kind that seem to fill Hollywood these days), but as the movie goes on, he fleshes out his character and becomes a pretty sympathetic man. Scott dominates this movie, and it shows how truly gifted he really is.

As good as this film is, it isn't perfect. The music, particularly at the beginning is too loud and threatens to drown out everything else. The film also leaves a few questions open-ended even though doing so serves no purpose.

Still, "The Dying Gaul" manages to throw in a few unexpected twists and surprises, and it is very watchable and highly recommendable.

The story in this film was simply different and I am sure reached many tender hearts who could share in the feelings of a triangle love which is beyond words. Jeffrey Tishop, (Campbell Scott) is a very powerful successful movie film executive who is married to Elaine Tishop, (Patricia Clarkson) and they have lovely children. There is a young writer who has written a screen play called "The Dying Gaul" and Jeffrey wants to buy the script so he can change the characters in the story. The young man needs the money so he accepts the one million dollars and becomes good friends with Elaine & Jeffrey. From this point on in the picture all the characters in the story become very much deeply involved with each other, almost in a spiritual way. This is a very warm and well produced picture.

The gay screenwriter Robert (Peter Sarsgaard), who is grieving the recent loss of his lover, writes a screenplay based on his biography and tries to sell it to the Hollywood producer Jeffrey (Campbell Scott). He offers one million dollars for his work, provided changes in the story replacing the dying man per a woman to make a commercial film. Jeffrey shows the screenplay to his wife Elaine (Patricia Clarkson), who loves to write and to plant flowers, and she is also delighted with the story.

Robert works introducing the required modifications and Jeffrey, who is bisexual, has an affair with him. Meanwhile Elaine finds the gay website where Robert writes and she creates a fake profile to have conversation with him pretending that she is his deceased lover. Soon she learns the affair of her husband and she decides to leave him. But when the gay Robert discovers the truth, he has a breakdown and takes vengeance for Elaine with tragic consequences.

"The Dying Gaul" is a boring movie with an unrealistic story. The idea of Elaine pretending to be the spirit of the dead gay and luring Robert in a gay chat room is ridiculous. The use of the deadly flower to poison Elaine would be easily found by the autopsy despite his explanation about the impossibility of finding the traceability of the poison. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Triângulo Obsceno" ("Obscene Triangle")

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Mr. Lucas directed a very cinematic version of his stage play, and assembled an outstanding cast. Peter Sarsgaard, Campbell Scott and particularly Patricia Clarkson, give layered, complex, award-worthy performances.

This film reminds me of another along the same genre, American Beauty, which also examined difficult and complex relationships, and attempted to do so with both humor and pathos.

Because this film is part thriller, part black comedy, part searing emotional drama, it had me going on many levels.

Again, Patricia Clarkson should be praised highly for her ability to make the reactions of her character so real! I have not always been a Craig Lucas fan, as I sometimes find his work to be a bit preachy (Prelude to a Kiss), but with this film, and his obvious director's eye, I look forward to his next effort.

Craig Lucas' film is a piece of pretentious Hollywood crap, with the only saving grace that of the wonderful Patricia Clarkson who plays the "wounded" Hollywood wife in the film and delivers a very poignant and empathetic performance.

From the first scenes between Peter Sarsgaard, Robert, and the handsome Cambell Scott, Jefferey, this film doesn't ring true to me as a writer in Los Angeles, as he heads to meet a Studio executive in such a nonchalant and unprofessional manner to discuss the purchase of his script THE DYING GAUL. That whole office scene is just too silly for words-even Robert's...Any writer would die to be in his position, let alone to be so uncaring about his script being sold to a major studio.

The usual glamorous Malibu settings, sun setting over the blue Pacific, that limo ride where everyone is sipping champagne to the good life in Hollywood once you make it, just seemed such a boring cliché. And the scenes where Jefferey keeps saying to Robert, "you're so beautiful", are beyond trite dialog.

Yes, we all have lost someone we love to death, but the way these characters discuss, chat online and deceive one another is not bringing any empathy to their stories, nor for their audience. And the last scene is not a tear jerker, just a reflection of what deception and lies can create for your downfall.

My recommendation, you want a shot of dark Hollywood, stick to the intriguing MULHOLLAND DRIVE for viewing, not THE DYING GAUL.

First off, the less you know about this movie before seeing it, the better. Go in clean. And just let it such you in. Here are a few things you CAN know. (a) The screenwriter/director, Craig Lucas, is gay but wrote his best known play, PRELUDE TO A KISS, about a straight relationship that has overtones of homosexuality. (b) Patricia Clarkson may be the finest actress of her age. She flits around the first 20 minutes of this movie in a bra and panties, toyingly svelt but with a panther-like quality you only realize later. (c) This is a movie without a protagonist or an antagonist -- or more accurate, a movie in which each of the main characters take turns at being the antagonist and protagonist. (d) Despite the gay aspects, this is really a movie about betrayal, and it is fiendishly mean (but in a good way). (e) Peter Sarsgaard has never looked handsomer. (f) That's all you need to know. See it.

How do we honor those we love? What kind of therapy can words provide?

I didn't understand the title of this movie but was eager to see it at the Austin Film Festival because it features such an exceptional cast. Campbell Scott, Peter Sarsgaard, and Patricia Clarkson consistently do interesting work and are appearing together for the first time. "The Dying Gaul" is one of the best movies I've seen in awhile.

In one of the first scenes Robert (Peter Sarsgaard) elaborates on the title of his screenplay, "The Dying Gaul," with studio executive Jeffrey (Campbell Scott.) The screenplay and its meaning to the writer becomes a catalyst for the story that unfolds.

This story of lust, manipulation, betrayal, and revenge is - not surprisingly - set in the Hollywood of 1995. But it's a story that could take place elsewhere, it just wouldn't be as captivating or beautifully photographed - and there are some lovely and interesting scenes and unusual close-ups.

Robert has turned the loss of his partner to AIDS into a screenplay that studio executive Jeffrey will pay top dollar for, with one significant change. Jeffrey's wife Elaine (Patricia Clarkson), also a screenwriter, adores the original script. She is drawn to Robert and wants to know more about the forces that influenced his talent. Her shocking discovery propels the story in unexpected ways.

Don't leave until the credits roll or you won't know who screenwriter and director Craig Lucas dedicates his story to. You may think about it in a different light. Lucas also wrote the screenplays of two other movies I liked very much: "The Secret Lives of Dentists" and "Longtime Companion." He is quite good at exploring the mysteries of the heart and dynamics of relationships. Don't miss this movie. I intend to see it again.

Somehow, this movie managed to hold my interest despite the fact that I never really cared about the characters or what was going to happen to them next. It's not a love story. Not a very good relationship tale. Not a mystery or thriller. Instead, Dying Gaul is a modern day Greek tragedy that uses Hollywood and homosexuality as simply vehicles to generate interest.

This is Craig Lucas' first time in the director's chair. He wrote The Secret Lives of Dentists (previously at Sundance, starring Patricia Clarkson). The movies tackle the same themes---the value and meaning of marriage, the impact of dalliances, the complexities of finding happiness and satisfaction without veering from tradition. But Dying Gaul comes at it with a different … orientation, and even outcome.

Patricia Clarkson is always excellent, but here she shows a little evil in her character, which is outside her normal range. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast comes off as wooden, certainly uninspired. Pay attention, because there are liberal doses of philosophy in the form of quotes and counsel. But the real tragedy here is the lack of a meaningful story or compelling characters.

Suppose you had intimate knowledge about someone, and that someone did not know that you knew. How would you use that knowledge? Or would you? This issue is the undercurrent that carries the film's plot, like a fast moving stream, over a cliff, to a swirling, uncontrollable emotional vortex that changes people's lives forever.

Set in modern Los Angeles, a grieving gay screenwriter named Robert (Peter Sarsgaard) meets with Jeffrey (Campbell Scott), a wealthy film producer, to talk about Robert's script "The Dying Gaul", a tribute to his deceased lover and soul mate. Jeffrey invites Robert to his mansion by the ocean to meet his wife Elaine (Patricia Clarkson), who reads Robert's script and loves it. Over time, Robert and Elaine become friends, which sets up a triangular relationship that careens out of control when the anonymity of internet chat rooms provides cover for the discovery of secrets.

Artsy in tone and philosophy, the film exudes New Age dialogue, with conversation about Buddhist Karma, "the middle way", enlightenment, and deadly plant roots. The film's production design is chic. And while the color cinematography is mostly conventional, sometimes it is beautifully stylistic. I really liked those stark human silhouettes against that orange screen. The film's score, which connotes New Age spiritualism, is terrific.

Acting of the three leads is quite good. Patricia Clarkson is great as she sits in front of a computer monitor and, without speaking, displays myriad emotions through her facial expressions alone.

The chat room scenes are creative and emotionally potent, amid magnified keyboard clicking sounds. The back and forth exchange here is unusual, and striking in that it is meaningless when taken out of context, but highly enlightening when considered in relation to the film's plot, as this sample shows: "Hello"; "I hear clicking"; "I'm still here"; "Are you still there?"; "Yes"; "You sound really distracted"; "Yeah today"; "When?" "I'm sorry"; "No, I'm all yours"; "Are mine what?"; "No"; "Yes"; "Meaning?"; "I'm all yours now".

The film's screenplay does contain a rather obvious plot hole. And a couple of scenes involving Robert's son and former wife are too tangential to the story's trajectory. But these are minor issues.

"The Dying Gaul" may seem artistically or philosophically pretentious to some viewers. But I really liked it. Quite aside from the wonderful performances and the chic production values, the film's story has thematic depth, a quality lacking in most mainstream Hollywood films.