Movie Review: Mr Right (2009)

Mr Right is one of those well-meaning gay indie films that starts with the premise that a film about gay people doesn't have to be about gayness. We're introduced to a number of characters, all gay men who are friends with the same straight woman and who socialise in Soho.

There's a frustrated TV producer with an equally frustrated actor boyfriend, a successful actor in a medical drama, a successful artist and his devastatingly handsome kept man, and an antique dealer with a nine-year-old daughter from a previous straight marriage. We also meet the straight female friend and her new boyfriend and a lot of the film is taken up by some really quite dreary "is he or isn't he gay" stuff. It's not clear whether we're supposed to conclude he's deluded, or that hanging out with gay men turns you gay, neither of which are particularly agreeable options. This whole subplot feels very bolted on and unsatisfying.

The real problem with this film is that, with the exception of William, the antique dealer, none of the characters are remotely sympathetic. They're either deluded (in the case of the artist and the struggling actor), self absorbed (the struggling actor again) or just plain spiteful. Unfortunately, this really gets in the way of any point of the film is trying to make.

The pivotal scene occurs at a dinner party when secrets are revealed and long simmering tensions finally boil over. This scene isn't particularly well acted, but also, the characterisation gets in the way. The successful actor berates his antique dealer boyfriend for being too timid about their relationship, and accuses him of being overprotective about his daughter, trying to protect any loss of any kind after an acrimonious divorce and her mother's subsequent death in a car accident. It's a fair point, that no matter how well-intentioned we are, we can't protect children from everything and we can't protect them forever. Unfortunately, this comes over so viciously that the point itself is lost and we wonder why, given he's so nasty, the antique dealer is even trying to be in a relationship with him.

The film does have some funny lines and there are some touching moments. Rocky Marshall, who plays William, gives a very sensitive performance which is head and shoulders above anybody else in the cast. Unfortunately, the film as a whole doesn't gel. However, it was only the first film from brother and sister writing and director team David and Jacqui Morris, so here's hoping they build on the good parts of this film, and their evident love for Soho, in their next project.

Movie Review: Boystown (2007)

Boystown is an amusing, if slightly uneven, Spanish gay comedy centred around a bear–club couple. Leo (Pepón Nieto) is the older member of the couple and works as a driving instructor while his younger partner Rey (Carlos Fuentes) does odd jobs as a plumber. At the start of the film, they're very much in love and their only problems are a shortage of money and an ex-boyfriend of Rey's sniffing around a little bit too intently.

All of this changes when there are a spate of murders of old ladies living alone in the neighbourhood. This fate befalls Leo and Rey's elderly neighbour. When the police find out that the neighbour left her flat to Rey, Leo and Rey are immediately suspects. The situation is not helped when Ray's harridan of a mother comes to live with the couple after being kicked out by her daughter for drying a cat in a microwave.

The murders are investigated by neurotic policewoman with multiple phobias and her long-suffering son. The audience learn very early in the film that the culprit is a buff, gay estate agent who is bumping off the old ladies so that he can buy their flats and redevelop them to sell the gay yuppies.

The two leads make a very good job of playing a happy gay couple, with a number of funny and touching scenes, not least the playful scene in which Rey has taped pens to his hands to look like his cartoon hero, Wolverine, before he ravishes his beloved.

What was really interesting to me however, is a scene in which the improbably buff estate agent beats up Leo while berating him for being the kind of gay men who isn't interested in going to the gym, endless personal grooming and wearing the most fashionable clothes. This scene really struck a chord with me, with the estate agent almost seeming to symbolise mainstream gay culture with its emphasis on the superficial and Leo representing the more balanced gay existence where what's on the inside matters more than what's on the outside.

This film is an amusing watch if you're looking for something undemanding, especially if you have a taste for Spanish bears.