Food of Love

Food of Love
by Ventura Pons

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Movie Reviews of Food of Love

Movie Review: Ambitious Cosmopolitans' Sex Comedy
Summary: 5 Stars

Paul Porterfield (played by Kevin Bishop) is a talented 18-year-old piano student from the San Francisco Bay Area who wants to make it in the concert world. He takes lessons and wants to go to Juilliard in Manhattan. The film begins with Paul getting to be a page-turner at a concert being performed by his touring hero, Richard Kennington (played by Paul Rhys). At the event, Paul also meets Kennington's manager, Joseph Mansourian (played by Allan Corduner). Both Mansourian and Kennington take notice of Paul.

Shortly Paul and his divorcing mother, Pamela (played by Juliet Stevenson), vacation in beautiful Barcelona. Paul finds an ad for a recent Kennington performance and tracks down the pianist. Paul and Kennington get along extra well. A chance incident lets Pamela, Paul, and Kennington be buddies in Barcelona, touring about.

Six months later, Paul attends Juilliard. Paul has a gay roommate from back home, Teddy (played by Naim Thomas), and a wealthy boyfriend, Alden Haynes (played by Carlos Castanon). It turns out Mansourian lives in the same building as Haynes, and impressario Mansourian still has his attractions. The problems are that Kennington and Mansourian have a long-term relationship and that piano teacher Mme. Novotna (played by Geraldine McEwan) is starting to have doubts about Paul's talent. When Pamela starts getting clues that something is up, she decides to take drastic action, and the cat-fight begins.

It is a pleasure to watch such good acting in the service of a literate script. All of the main characters find themselves in false positions and try to spin their ways out of it. Each has to decide what is really important to him or her. The character who actually grows the most is the mother, Pamela, who starts out oblivious to anything other than her routine self and her son's initial dream, and who has to cope with a number of shocks without messing matters up for good. On display from many characters is an ability and desire to overlook others' untidiness, no matter what the initial bluster might suggest.

Kevin Bishop does a fine job of balancing his projected motivations. With his character in repeated high-stress situations, one cannot be sure whether Paul is a victim of others, a gold-digger, or a weak-willed, go-with-the-flow guy. He is certainly an aggressive flatterer of successful pianists. There is some room for interpretation.

There are substantial skin scenes with Paul and with Kennington, not necessarily together. All is tasteful.

The exterior scenes in Barcelona were especially beautiful. I wish there had been a special feature telling the audience about these shots.

The DVD has excellent special features. There is an interview with director Ventura Pons, coupled with behind-the-scenes shots. The main actors (Stevenson, Rhys, Corduner, Bishop, and McEwan) provide five terrific interviews, especially when they discuss the characters they played. A third feature is an interview with David Leavitt, the author of "The Page Turner", on which the movie is based. He discusses his feelings about the relationship between the book and the movie and about the current state of art by and about gay people. Finally there are trailers for "Food of Love" and for five other films. These were useful features, well done.

Finding fault, one might debate whether Paul would leave the clues he did for his mother to find. I have a memory that the screen version of the movie had a bit of subplot for Juilliard roommate Teddy that does not appear on the DVD. Lastly, I found the fonts used in the chapter listings and in the special features difficult to read.

Still a "Food of Love" good movie that shows sensitivity to a variety of characters going through crises and trying to get along and to move up to the next stage of life.

Summary of Food of Love