Must See Movie...

A lot of fun.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A comedy, one more, in this life that is so little comic indeed. We start with the promise of a revolution coming through and we end with a request or piece of advice that you better be home soon, and in between, love, romance, tragedy and a lot of empathy and misery with a little bit of happiness sprinkled on top, at times angry happiness because of the silly decision you took and it broke the potential happy development you were hoping for and looking forward to getting on a silver platter. You just got Saint John the Baptist's head.We are dealing here with grown up men and women all in strange situations. A young gay man living with his parents and the father behaves as if he did not know and he turns ugly when it becomes news stuff on TV. Another gay man living with his widower of a father who is not gay but accepts his son the way he is though he is invasive, maybe an intrusive voyeur, and in a way blocks his son's way to happiness.That same man gets in touch with a lady through some meeting club and the two fall for one another but the night when things were going to go through, New Year's Eve, at his place, the son being out for his own fun, she comes across some gay magazines and cannot accept the fact that she had not been told before, and if she had it would not have changed anything because she just does not want to go across this line.Just minutes after she drove off, when the fireworks start celebrating the New Year, he has a savage and wild heart attack or stroke and he will remain paralyzed on one side and without the capability to speak any more. In other words she broke his heart and that is not a metaphor, she literally did break his heart, boom.That is sad, very sad, but it is a comedy, so there must be a happy ending and life will take care of some haphazard meeting of the two young men and then life will be on tracks again. But gosh it is not easy to build your own happiness when you are not a photocopy of the standard middle of the way unoriginal model imposed by ethical and moral norms in our society, even when things have changed legally. Between the law and reality there is more than a simple Strait of Malacca: there are thousands of hostile pirates with weapons everywhere up over their heads ready to raid your life to prevent you from being happy.Enjoy the details.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but personally I found this film to be an almost total embarrassment in every way.The father bursts in (TWICE!) on his son while he's trying to get it on with a new guy he's met. Is that believable? Hardly. It's the kind of thing that a ten year old brother might do, not a parent, especially a parent who is gay-positive and hoping that his son will meet someone and have a serious affair.It's almost as embarrassing to watch the father meet a woman through a dating agency. The two of them act like they are 15 years old... and totally unnatural at that. When he decides to propose to her he actually gets down on one knee. If it were done tongue in cheek, maybe I could accept it, but it's done straight (pardon the pun).This film also has the bad habit of having the actors turn towards the camera and talk to the audience directly. Once or twice, maybe, but over and over again it totally breaks up the film and destroys any possibility of allowing the audience to get emotionally into what is happening. The worst moment in the film is when the father has had a stroke and is lying almost paralyzed in his bed. The son goes to get something, leaving the father alone, and all of a sudden he stops lying there like a vegetable, smiles, and starts chatting to the audience. It totally destroys any semblance of continuity and becomes annoying as hell by the end of the film.I suppose it's nice to have a film where some of the parents are understanding and (too) helpful to the gay son for a change, but does it have to be so adolescent in its presentation? There was only one thing in the entire film that was truly interesting, and that was what happened to the grandmother and her lover at the end of the film. Strangely enough, it doesn't even seem to fit in, but it makes the loudest statement for understanding than anything else in the film. In fact, I wish the film had been about the grandmother and her lover... that would have truly been ground-breaking and intriguing.

The Australian film "The Sum of Us," which was adapted by David Stevens from his own play, portrays the close relationship between a widowed father and his openly gay son. Although the play has been "opened up" in terms of breaking out of the stage production's single set, Stevens has retained several scenes in which the characters talk directly to the audience. A gimmick even on stage, these actors' asides to the viewer intrude on the story and, in one particular instance, completely destroy the reality of the situation. When an actor addresses the audience, he is saying in effect "this is only a movie and I am only an actor playing a part." However, despite this flaw, which is a serious one, the film offers two fine performances by Russell Crowe and Jack Thompson and an often-memorable story of love and the search for love.Although Harry Mitchell, played by Thompson, is an incredibly tolerant and understanding father, he is the proverbial "too much of a good thing." In his seemingly endless desire to see his son find the right mate, he is intrusive, overbearing, and completely oblivious to his own meddling. However, Thompson is such an amiable actor and imbues the character with so much charm that the viewer, like his son, has to forgive him anything. In an early role, young Russell Crowe already shows his range as an actor. Clad in short cutoffs throughout most of the film, Crowe also displays his physical charms as well for interested fans. While his looks are not classically handsome, his appeal is undeniable, and, to his credit, he does not play the character of Jeff with any hint of stereotypical gay mannerisms, and he is not averse to displaying affection towards another man.Although the movie follows Jeff's search for Mr. Right and Harry's search for Miss Right, the most touching and haunting scenes in the film and the play before it relate to the relationship that Harry's mother had with a woman named Mary. The two women lived and loved each other for 40 years before well meaning, but unintentionally cruel, relatives separated them "for their own good." The separation of his mother and her lover haunts Harry with the thoughts of what the two women discussed on their last night together, knowing that it was the last time that they would see each other. On stage, the story of the two women brought the audience to tears. Related visually on screen, the episode will haunt viewers as much as it did Harry.While certainly not a classic or even a groundbreaking film, "The Sum of Us" is competent, entertaining, warm, and full of hope that the world is moving in the right direction.

It's been a while, like some ten years now, that I discovered The Sum of Us VHS and fell for Russell. I now have a DVD with subtitles. I haven't seen some of his early films but contrary to the American generalized opinion, I dislike Gladiator and that seems like a heresy to so many people. Well, I'm glad to be that heretic ! I also disliked Cinderella Man. But I love others, like The Insider, Master and Commander and many others. Comments like I've read in so many pages of adoration and repulse are to me like everyone has a right to his own opinion. As for mine, I would like to be close to Russell this lifetime and maybe some of the next.