Ladymol's Review

I haven’t laughed so much at a film for a very long time. This is a genuinely funny movie that’s zany and weird and just lots of fun. I wasn’t so keen on the book, written by Craig Chester, which was based on this film, as it just didn’t work for me. I wish I’d seen this first.

Chester directs and stars in the movie too – a talented guy. Equally talented, his co-star Malcolm Gets, whose resume on IMB is amazing. He certainly sings and dances brilliantly as he demonstrates in this movie – and, no, it’s NOT a musical, but it has the infectious energy of one!

When I saw the theatrical trailer for the movie, I was dubious about enjoying it. Both Chester and Gets seemed miscast for their roles – physically, at least. I was wrong. This isn’t a film about beautiful men and bodies; it’s about true love and finding happiness. You come away from the film thinking that life is a little better for having seen it.

I think this is a brilliant movie for gay or straight and a great evening’s entertainment.

Cerisaye's Review

We read/reviewed the novelisation of this film a while ago and I assumed I'd enjoy it since I quite liked the book.  I was wrong.  It is an awful movie I can't recommend.  The acting is terrible, dialogue stilted and unbelievable, the humour outweighs the romance that's by far the best aspect of the story and a lot of it is of the American Pie variety I really can't stand.  Worst of all, however, I just didn't like the lead actors (Craig Chester is Adam) who were nothing remotely like the versions in my head when I read the novel.  I'm a hypocrite because I've criticised plastic perfection often enough, yet these guys just weren't attractive enough for me.  I know it's laudable for a movie to show what look like real men, not some unobtainable perfection.  But a romantic comedy won't work if you don't like its main characters.  I've seen gay-themed movies before with regular guys- Big Eden for example- and if the characterisation is good enough you don't mind.  With this film they just try too hard, especially with the funny, and it turned me off altogether.

Two men meet as teenagers (no way do they look adolescent) in the mid 80s, a one-night-stand that ends really badly.  Jump forward another ten years or so and they meet again, but don't recognise each other.  They fall in love and of course we know sooner or later they're going to make the connection to that earlier encounter, with disastrous consequences for their sweet romance.  Adam is a recovering alcoholic trying to get his life together, and Steve a hospital therapist afraid of intimacy.  Now book Steve is supposed to be dazzingly gorgeous, but film Steve just isn't.  Neither character has any depth so it's hard to care what happens to them.  The 80s meeting that scarred them both with low self-esteem and fear of rejection features a particularly gross scene that was bad enough to read about but to SEE it onscreen is just too revolting for words.  The two secondary characters, Adam's faghag sidekick (Parker Posey), a stand-up comic who used to be extremely obese but now she's thin still uses the same routine, and Steve's straight slacker flatmate, are more interesting and better played than the lead roles.

I love a satisfying gay romance and often enough I've complained about unhappy or tragic endings.  This story certainly ends happily, after a really cheesy musical routine.  Yet it did nothing for me. 

Instantly forgettable, mindless, with gross-out humour and a desperate and unappealing desire to be liked, too much that went totally over the top or was just plain silly.  I was just glad I rented the movie rather than bought or wasted time downloading it.  Not recommended.