It's really hard to find a portrayal of gay men, much less men-of-color, who are not prissy, have a fashion obsession or catty. This movie does a pretty good job, except for the "fruit fly" female character playing the manager to the lead male's painter. Man, does she ever shut up!?! She's on the screen for mere minutes and you want to never see her again, a total throwaway character.
The story is typical guy holding torch for some guy who showed him some attention when he was younger, now after 20+ years he has a chance to see him again, blah blah blah. The truth is any gay man over the age of 25 realizes dreams like that never come true and if you are lucky you find love in places and whenever you least expect it. So that part of the movie comes off as pretty stereotypical, gay man staring and acting like a big ol' girl when the straight crush is around. The Pike Character was a real good job by Eric Schweig. It was great to see a brown man who isn't willowy and hanging on a middle-aged white guy like he's going to faint. The shyness of the character is interesting, no cloud of shame or second-class "so grateful you white/straight people like me". You don't even know where his heart lies until well into the movie, moving into it like a puff of air on the edge of a wheat field and forming gentle designs as it moves across. When the time comes and the lead character is in Pike's arms you see a really powerful image, the white lead is a molehill to Pike's mountain and probably one of the best kisses on film.
The story is typical guy holding torch for some guy who showed him some attention when he was younger, now after 20+ years he has a chance to see him again, blah blah blah. The truth is any gay man over the age of 25 realizes dreams like that never come true and if you are lucky you find love in places and whenever you least expect it. So that part of the movie comes off as pretty stereotypical, gay man staring and acting like a big ol' girl when the straight crush is around. The Pike Character was a real good job by Eric Schweig. It was great to see a brown man who isn't willowy and hanging on a middle-aged white guy like he's going to faint. The shyness of the character is interesting, no cloud of shame or second-class "so grateful you white/straight people like me". You don't even know where his heart lies until well into the movie, moving into it like a puff of air on the edge of a wheat field and forming gentle designs as it moves across. When the time comes and the lead character is in Pike's arms you see a really powerful image, the white lead is a molehill to Pike's mountain and probably one of the best kisses on film.