Touches You

best movie i've ever seen.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I bought the DVD based on a couple of reviews that I read. Of course, they were on the website, that was selling the DVD. I normally will check out the movie from the library or video store, before buying it. I guess I should have with this one. The acting was fine, but the storyline was easy to predict. The entire movie seemed rather slow to me. I'm talking about the pace, not lack of action. Although it lacks in that area as well. I think a movie should be entertaining, AND thought provoking. I found this movie to be neither. I realize that everyone has their opinion. Mine, is that I wasted my money. Sorry. I guess as a gay man, I expected more.

This 2000 made for TV film is a sham for gay people. It promotes gay bashing, degrades coming out and gives homosexuals a dated persecuted life style. I could have sworn when I saw this trite work, it must have been done in 1960. For certainly gay issues deserve better than this dribble. The fault lies in the writing and directing. Mark Burt writes a trivial and lack-less script with absolutely no compassion for any of the major characters. Aisling Walsh, a woman, directs with no understanding of how to bring any hope to her leading players. She certainly has no understanding of gay life. If she herself is gay, than shame on her. If not, she needs to go to a gay bar or march in a gay pride day parade and surround herself with today's gay people.The actors do what they can to give believability to this nonsense. Steve John Shepherd plays the young man tortured over his homosexuality. Afraid to come out to his best friend and to his parents. Why he chooses to do so in such a public way, beats me. But he does. I'll say no more as to the outcome and let you see for yourself. Believe me, you won't be surprised. John Simm, hardly, in my eyes, worth all the suffering, is the attraction to Shepherd as his best friend. Simm has his own demons to deal with. And again, you really don't care. He earns his oats. As the unsympathetic and sometimes just down right annoying girl-friend to Simm, Laura Fraser is a real possessive bitch (can I say that word?) A control freak, she deserves losing any guy who would put up with her antics and games. I was hoping she'd lose the guy in the end. Again, see what happens yourself. Again, no surprise.Then there are the parents that contradict themselves all over the place. An overbearing dad, played by Maurice Roeves, knows nothing but anger and screams through most of the film. What's with this guy? Sometimes overacting, he suddenly has all this tear jerking at the end? And you don't believe it anyway. "Let him go", says he. I would have been gone from this dad a long time ago. And the mother, played by Ger Ryan, sits and bakes pies. Probes her son most of the time to see what's wrong and when she discovers the truth, over public TV, completely disowns him. She begs him to be honest and then slaps him in the face. Give me a break.I liked Shepherd's work in this and wish he could have had a decent venue to work with. For he gave the most convincing performance. Simm was one level, Fraser was just awful as were the parents.I give this dated movie a 2 star for Shepherd's performance attempt.

"Forgive and Forget" will certainly generate mixed feelings. The central character of David, a closeted working class guy who's desperately in love with his best pal Theo, is interesting in that David becomes the equivalent of a jealous lover when Theo gets increasingly serious about his new GF Hanna (who's not so different from David in some respects). A jealous lover who has to conceal his feelings, which leads David to some actions that are less than sympathetic. While the film tries to show how David is suffering, the script and the lead actor rarely succeed is making David both wrong-headed but sympathetic. He glowers so much and is so clammed up emotionally that he almost becomes a villain. Theo really is the most sympathetic character in the film, a man victimized by his unreasonable GF and betrayed by his best friend.(Spoiler alert): The penultimate scene on a TV show called "Forgive and Forget" is unbelievable to me. Even given David's need to tell Theo how he feels, it's hard to believe that someone as closeted as David would come out in such a public, spectacular way. The writer and director don't build David's character in a way where such a gesture seems inevitable. And the film never thinks to explore why the TV show would cooperate with such a surprise admission.The ending has upset viewers - frankly, I didn't believe Theo to be the type to engage in such brutal behavior. And the Hanna's sudden appearance to stop Theo from inflicting further damage to David made no sense at all, given that she and Theo had already broken up. Given David's actions it's easy to interpret the beating as David getting what he deserved for betraying his pal...and for daring to fall in love with a straight man and humiliate him by declaring that to him on TV. I can certainly imagine many hetero men readily taking that away from the film, especially as we see Theo and Hanna walking away hand-in-hand leaving David laying on the floor to fend for himself - not even asking if he's OK. As for the last shot of David, who can say what it means? He's learning how to move on? He's still in a dream world?Anyone familiar with the gay-related murder that resulted from a similar occurrence on the Jenny Jones Show will wonder just what the filmmakers intended here. I understand that the writer of this film makes special mention that he's straight, so you never know.

Don't expect to feel comfortable or be warmed by a Hollywood ending.Do expect a well-acted fable about the dangers of falling in love with your best friend and how pursuing that love and destroy your friendship. 'How do you tell someone you love them?' 'Just tell them and hope they believe you.' The added closet homosexual existence of one of the friends, and relationship with his family, makes matters more complex.You are pretty much left to make your own conclusions from the ending. I will be watching this movie again.Also there are some novel south of the Thames (London) locations.