A hopscotch series of flashbacks reconstructs events leading to the brutal 1967 murder of controversial young British playwright Joe Orton by his lover Ken Halliwell. There's an attempt to explain the crime in the context of England's then draconian anti-gay legal system, but underneath the forthright candor of the homosexual love scenes is an all-too conventional biography, like others emphasizing a tragic story of romance gone sour.
The leapfrog structure opens before the couple's first meeting (in drama class where, in a playacting exercise, Halliwell throttles an imaginary cat), and continues through the moment they became lovers (during a TV broadcast of the Queen's coronation) to their inevitable estrangement, as the insecure Halliwell becomes increasingly jealous of Orton's professional acclaim and uninhibited promiscuity. The performances alone are enough to recommend the film, but the brevity of Orton's life (cut short almost at the moment of his first success) doesn't allow for much in the way of character development. And because no examples of his eccentric playwriting are included, the author himself remains (to anyone unfamiliar with his work) too much of a mystery.
The leapfrog structure opens before the couple's first meeting (in drama class where, in a playacting exercise, Halliwell throttles an imaginary cat), and continues through the moment they became lovers (during a TV broadcast of the Queen's coronation) to their inevitable estrangement, as the insecure Halliwell becomes increasingly jealous of Orton's professional acclaim and uninhibited promiscuity. The performances alone are enough to recommend the film, but the brevity of Orton's life (cut short almost at the moment of his first success) doesn't allow for much in the way of character development. And because no examples of his eccentric playwriting are included, the author himself remains (to anyone unfamiliar with his work) too much of a mystery.