Boyfriends

1996, Movie, NR, 82 mins

BOYFRIENDS
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Depsite the host of obvious influences -- THE BIG CHILL, Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! spring immediately to mind -- this amiable English romantic comedy is an original and quite perceptive take on domesticity and gay relationships. Three couples, each representing a different stage in the development of a relationship, assemble for an Easter weekend away at a friend's beach house. Paul and Ben have been together for five years and appear to be on the verge of a breakup; Matt, after only three months, is pressuring Owen to move in with him; Will has known Ben for less than 24 hours, having picked him up at a bar the night before. Unlike last year's tiresome EVERYTHING RELATIVE, first-time feature directors Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger use the weekend in the country plot not to normalize these relationships -- that's a given -- nor to moon over the glory days, but to question whether or not the bourgeois heterosexual ideal of domestic bliss is a viable model for gay couples. Hunter and Hunsinger never really tackle the big questions they initially raise -- why is commitment more problematic in same-sex relationships? -- but it's sharply observed, intelligently played and occasionally very funny. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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Boyfriends
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