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.
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