Ladymol's Review

This is a really sweet film about a group of people forced, against their wills, into taking part in the Ride For Life: a bike ride in California to raise money for AIDS. Chris has just died of AIDS and in his will he asks his lover, Doug, his ex-wife Melissa, and his best friend to do the ride and scatter his ashes in a place they choose. He also asks his twin brother, Frank, a straight New York policeman, played by the gorgeous Vincent Spano. It’s quite clever in the beginning, which takes place during Chris’s wake, because there are huge pictures of this gorgeous guy who has just died and then he walks in—his twin bother and the loss is brought home very poignantly.

The dialogue is sparkling, the acting excellent and the scenery worth watching on its on. No gay action at all, but just a fun, moving film about loss and how it can, eventually, bring the most disparate of people together.

Cerisaye's Review

Frank has just lost twin brother Chris to AIDS; but really he’d lost him a long time before because Chris was gay and disowned by his family when he came out.  Frank had a hard time accepting it, now it’s too late and he’s got to live with that. To honour his brother’s dying wishes Frank reluctantly agrees to take part in a charity cycle ride, 450 miles along Northern California’s Pacific coast.  It’s the only way he’s going to get Chris’ ashes to take home to New York says his brother’s flamboyant lawyer. Accompanying Frank are Doug, Chris’ devoted husband, Melissa, his ex-wife, and Gaetano, hunky stud muffin whose exact relationship to the dead man is unclear, but he’s sex-on-legs.

Self-righteous queen Doug has no time for handsome Frank, angry at his apparently uncaring attitude even when Chris was dying, his heterophobia equal to Frank’s homophobic hang-ups, though Frank at least is trying to overcome his prejudices.  Melissa is having an existential crisis and Gaetano hard-living party boy clearly needs some direction.  Chris brought together the 4 most important people in his life for a reason.  They were his family and now they need strength and healing.

Just to complicate matters, both Doug and Melissa are attracted to Frank because he looks so much like the dead man both loved deeply and miss so much it hurts.  Macho cop Frank is threatened by the gay men around him on the bike ride, so terrified it’s quite endearing.  Of course he’s gorgeous, which helps too!  Gaetano has problems of his own and a special reason for completing the race.

The scenery is beautiful, perfect backdrop to one of those life-affirming, inspirational, tug-at-the-heart-strings movies America does so well.  It just avoids mawkish sentimentality with an injection of humour and leaves a warm glow in its wake.

It’s similar to one of my favourite films here LE FATE IGNORANTE in that Frank belatedly discovers his brother had a whole life he didn’t know about, with a family of friends who loved him.  That’s one of the messages of this heart warming film, that we all make our own families, people who don’t put conditions on their love, who accept us for what we are not what they want us to be.

Each character is changed by the end, brought together by a shared experience of loss to realise differences don’t matter when you care for someone.  I enjoyed the film.  It’s got a nice mix of gay/straight characters.  I liked the exchange between Doug and his mother, who really knows her son is gay but doesn’t want to know so it can’t actually be said between them.  Not the most challenging of films perhaps, but nice and entertaining, perfect viewing for a quiet Saturday night.