Beautiful Thing
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Movie Reviews of Beautiful Thing
Movie Review: A Really Nice Coming of Age & OUT Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is really quite nice and innocent. I honestly do not understand the R rating either. I suspect this movie gets an R for no other reason than its main theme is GAY related. Heaven forbid some otherwise straight person see a tender caring movie showing homosexual life where the gay characters are not psychopaths, street hustlers or low life criminals on the fast trck to some stereotypical tragic deadly downfall.
This movie is about two dudes who find each other and the pains they both have in coming out to themselves then their families and eventually the world around them. This movie is a Beautiful Thing indeed. As for the slang being difficult to understand that is a valid point but even a novice can get the point of what is meant. I am not the quickest off the mark when it comes to understanding brit-slang but even I managed to comprehend the movies meanings well enough in time to keep up with what was going on. You are definately ahead of the learning curve on the slang in this movie if you are a fan of East Enders or any other brit-coms or mysteries featured mainly on the BBC America or PBS channels,
The A Beautiful Thing is sweet, gentle, tender and sensitive. Character development is amazingly subtle especially in a gay themed movie where so many directors make the mistake to protraying everything as over the top camp or trashy. A Beautiful Thing evokes memories making it uniquely powerful in its understated message of love in a world of intollerance and homophobia. Most of all that A Beautiful Thing has a rare thing indeed for a gay movie, a happy ending making it one to buy and add to my collection because so very few gay themed movies have happy endings.
It was so nice to see a gay themed movie where the guys are not street wise thug hustlers. These guys were not your typical perfect gym bodied empty headed primping self absorbed muscle boy egoist. These dudes were just your normal everyday run of the mill British Blokes who found each other and fell in love. There is effectively no overt sex or hard core violence in this movie to speak of so A Beautiful Thing would be great for someone dealing with coming out issues. I liked that the situations in this movie felt a little more real, less odd, forced and staged than I see in most USA made gay themed gay coming of age movies.
All I can say is I wish they had movies like this one when I was young but I am thankful movies like A Beautiful Thing exists for those gay folk coming to terms with being gay today. I enjoyed Beautiful Thing on Satilite TV and on seeing it will buy a copy from AMAZON.com so I cab add A Beautiful Thing to my collection soon and hope you will as well. A Beautiful Thing was a refreshing British inspired change from the ugly tragic side of gay life most USA gay themed movies wallow in.
Movie Review: A touching story about the power of touch
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have a good ear and mind for decoding British working class accents (I don't), or a high tolerance for misunderstanding every fifth or sixth phrase (I have), you'll enjoy this film about several families from an apartment complex somewhere in contemporary industrial England. Living in a row like unlikely peas in a pod are teenage youth Jamie and his single barmaid mum, Ste (Jamie's chum) and Ste's single (alcoholic and physically abusive) father and older brother, and an elderly Caribbean woman and her granddaughter Lea, a sassy high school drop-out(?) with a passion for Mama Cass records. (By the way, Mama Cass delivers the only fully intelligble lines in the entire movie.)It is not an easy life for any of the young people--or the adults, for that matter--in this story. Lea is self-deluded and about as lost as any young girl can be. Jamie is relentlessly teased for being "bent" and "a fluff" at school, a torment he is too ashamed of to report to his mother. Neighbor Ste is brutally beaten by his father and brother for the slightest infractions. The most touching scene in the movie for me was when Ste first shows Jamie his bruises and Jamie offers to rub his back with a soothing cream, the kind sold to self-pampering housewives in The Body Shoppe. In Jamie's hands, the cream takes on the importance of a sacred unction, a balm of Gilead.
It is apparent throughout this movie that skin to skin contact-- touch--is the most primal way people communicate, establish trust, and form opinions about themselves. "You're all right," Jamie's mother assures him shortly after relentlessly pummeling him during a fit of frustration. One wonders whether such words of assurance can ever undo the messages communicated by direct physical violence. In Jamie's case, perhaps. His mother's efforts to stand by her son are consistent and sincere (bouts of frustration and parental ineptitude aside). In Ste's case, it is only through the gentle, loving contact he receives from Jamie (and Jamie's mother) that he can even begin to realize that he counts for something.
Amidst all this violence and pain is the omnipresent voice of Mama Cass blasting from Lea's hi-fi. This can be heard as the "la-di-da" voice of denial, a voice emanating from the far away world of sunshine and flowers (California) and the long-ago time of the Summer of [Innocence and] Love (1967). Or it can be heard as the hymns and creeds of a new religion, one whose chief doctrine is the power of love to conquer hate, violence, and intolerance.
The film has a few loose ends that left me puzzled, but overall I'd call this a great film. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: A TITAN IN THE GAY FILM GENRE & BOUND TO BE A CLASSIC
Summary: 5 Stars
Sit down strap yourself in and hold on as we are about to go on an emotional roller coaster ride to the core of human emotions. "Beautiful Thing" is all this, and more; you will laugh, and cry, get angry, and then cry some more. As I started to explain this film, which will grab you and pull you in quite possibly like no other, to my employee, I started to break down; I don't do this very often. Tears are welling up now as I type this.The film is about an adolesent young man, Jamie who lives with his "mum" in an English housing development along with is neighbores on one side, Leah ( who adds much comic relief ) and her mother, and Ste. ( short for Steven )another adolesent boy of the same age and his older brother and father on the other side.
In the openning secequence, Jamie is in his P.E. class ( with Ste.) and the other boys ridicule him viciously, not wanting him to join them in football ( British style ); humiliated ( I've been then there) after having his gym kit thrown over the fence he retrieves it, skips class and runs home. Ste., on the other hand is physicaly beaten by his abusive bother and father and lives in fear; unable to take the abuse any longer Ste. spends the night with Jamie sleeping head to toe in the same bed. Later on Jamie steals a gay magazine shows it to Ste. and discovers a gay "pub" across town and ask's him to join him; the mother knows something is up and follows them there, when later that night she confronts Jamie on his activies of that night, crying in his bed "Some things are just to hard to say" he tells his mother. Like a trailer to a film, I don't like to give the whole story away and ruin it for you; I really suggest that you avoid reading other reviews that do. I will say there isn't any frontal nudity; and it's a great film if you are just comming out or show it to your family or school to dramitize the effects of gay bashing etc. either way, bring plenty of kleenx the ending will stick with you for a long time; for it is neither to sweet to be "sappy" and the acting is excellent to the point of being surreal; This could have been a major motion picture Hollywood style, I have never seen anything like it and the soundtrack form the "MOMMA'S & THE PAPPA'S adds a wonderful score.
We as gay people have face and experienced rejection, hatred, bigotry and even murder; but in the end you will discover that life after all is, a Beautiful Thing.
If you get just one film this year, get " BEAUTIFUL THING "
( buy one copy for your video store too).
Movie Review: Extremely Sweet... AND Realistic
Summary: 5 Stars
Problem is, naysayers to this movie didnt grow up in a situation like that. Obviously, anyone who has an imagination can understand what's going on. This film was way ahead of its time in the fact that they didn't need to show every little bit of what was going on. Now you see that in movies constantly.
I think I have a rather good idea of what a fantastic movie is, and I'm not just saying that about this movie because I am a homosexual. I relate to these characters like I know them. Its almost as if my story was being told on that screen. Of course, Im not from England and it wasnt an apartment complex, but its pretty much the same exact thing.
Jamie and Ste didn't exactly have a close relationship before hooking up, no. But they'd obviously known each other a long time. Nobody noticed how, at school, they might not have been the best of friends, but outside of school they got along just fine. THAT HAPPENS. That's the way high school is. Especially if you're in a rural or condensed area.
The love scene was not, either, "all of a sudden", like some paint it out to be. The scenes leading up to it show their growing admiration of each other, especially when they were trying to suss out each others' take on girls and sexuality the first night Ste came to stay at Jamie's. Then came the simple task of Ste retrieving Jamie's soccer ball when the other jerks just threw him in the river. In a film it may not seem like much, but in reality, real life, it means a lot. And RELATION to that is where you understand these characters.
The only problem I had with this movie was with Leah's "trip" scene in which she actually though she was someone else. A little far-fetched, yeah. Only people on drugs coinciding with mental problems believe they're someone else. And I had a problem with the DVD having no English subtitles. I had to turn the closed-caption on my TV on. Those big black boxes are distracting. But now I know the movie by heart, so I don't really need them.
I thought this was a fantastic and REALISTIC movie. In order to understand and believe in it, you have to RELATE to it, which I did. I remember going through the exact same motions Jamie went through in his coming out. And I remember my first boyfriend's motions related a ton to Ste's.... so its really not that far away, is it?
Movie Review: The title says it all - this is a Beautiful Thing
Summary: 5 Stars
It is truly a beautiful thing. A true love story, and for those that follow my reviews you know that is my favourite thing! Don't let the fact it is a 1996 movie put you off, the story and quality lasts the test of 12 years. Jaime and live next door to each other. Steve (Ste) is in an abusive home, Jamie doesn't fair much better but he is loved. Ste is a jock, Jamie is not. After being beaten by his brother Ste goes to Jamie's, his mother tells Jamie to let Ste share his bed...how many gay young men get THAT kind of offer (to be fair she doesn't know her son is gay). The boys have a rapport, Ste looks at Jamie with soulful eyes...is he gay or does he just like Jamie? The sleeping together platonically continues... At one point we see the effects of abuses on Ste both physically and mentally..."You're not ugly" is answered with "They've made me ugly." Things progress, and it is a beautiful thing. It is not graphic, it is poigniant. They go to a gay pub together, Jamie's mother follows them... It turns ugly, but not tragic. Love saves the day...Jamie's mother, despite her hard as nails exterior comes through. The end scenes...lovely. The boys dance in public, Ste's hard man extereior melts for Jamie, he knows the reaction of dancing in public but takes his man and holds him close...sigh. It ends here, but it is implied he will go to live with Jamie and his mother at her new pub, she will be landlady. Well that is the ending I see. Scott Neal (Ste) played a gay cop on the British series 'The Bill'. What is better than 2 men kissing? Answer, 2 men in uniform kissing...!!! More grahpic scenes would have been nice, but it didn't lose it's impact without them. The kissing scenes...well they are teenagers and kiss like teenagers. Jamie is so sure of himself and Ste, Ste has a lot going on inside (and is facing danger from his family) - I like the premise that you can lift others from the pit of despair and hopelessness through love, acceptance and the belief it will be ok. This is thoroughly watchable and very enjoyable. It is similar to "Get Real" which I also love, check that out too.Get Real