Against all I heard about this movie, it´s great and ahead of its time
Honestly, now, after finally having seen it, I don´t understand the negative comments I heard about this movie at all.
Some of the comments I heard beforehand:
"This movie is boring and played safe".
No, it isn´t and it doesn´t, in my opinion. Showing a male to male kiss in that fashion and showing the sex scene, as short as it is, is very brave for a movie made in 1982. I was surprised at how much the movie dared rather than wondering about how much it didn´t dare. And I didn´t find it boring at all. It´s a movie dealing with human relationships, it´s only natural you won´t find the same car chase, bank robbery whatever action you´d find in other movies. I liked the slow pace of the movie and wasn´t bored for a second.
"The acting was crappy".
I don´t agree at all. Especially Harry Hamlin was very good in my opinion, playing very natural and believable, Kate Jackson was good too and Michael Ontkean did okay too, although his acting came across a little wooden at times but that´s only normal I guess because he was the one to play the character that was about to come out and his role had to be more reserved because of that. All in all I was surprised to see such mature acting considering the theme of it and it´s really, really a big shame that Ontkean´s and Hamlin´s careers seemingly took a dive after both of them participated in the movie because their bravery to take on roles like that in 1982 deserves every respect, especially for the manner in which the acting was handled. Hamlin could have easily gone over the top with his flirtatious and seemingly careless character and Ontkean could have gone in the other direction and could have acted like a piece of wood like other actors would have done with this character but he didn´t and that deserves respect. Actors like Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger get a lot of praise for their acting in Brokeback, just because the times have changed to their favor, but I don´t think Hamlin´s and Ontkean´s acting lacks a lot in comparison, not at all. It was as subtle as the movie and I liked that.
"The story was crappy."
Again, I don´t agree at all. A married man discovers his feelings for other men. So far there´s not much difference to a movie like Brokeback. And I thought the emotions involved in a discovery like that were played out very well. And really, this movie even dared a little more than Brokeback in that respect that Ontkean´s character was not denied a happy, fulfilling relationship in the end, unlike Ledger´s character in Brokeback. He did leave his wife and he did get into a working, loving relationship with another man, his family respected his decision and stood behind him it seems. That´s a very positive message, one that I was surprised to witness at the end of the movie, especially considering the fact that it´s 1982 we´re talking about. My hats off to the makers and participants in this movie. We all know that this movie had to take in a lot of criticism and now that I´ve seen it, I know why. America must have been perplexed to watch a movie like that, not knowing what to do with the message it sent. It was way ahead of its time and I do mean that in a very positive way. Not since have I seen another american mainstream movie depicting the topic in the same positive fashion.
Interesting in that respect I found the little sequence in which Kate Jackson´s character finds the matches with the phone number and visits the man she thinks her husband has an affair with. They engage in a little conversation after the man is a little reluctant to let her in at first. It´s not the guy that Ontkean´s character has had an affair with but they´ve met on one occasion. As Kate´s character finds out she´s talking to the wrong man, she nevertheless asks him some questions, out of curiosity, for instance whether he´s happy. He replies, apart from tax eating up half of his money etc etc, yes, he´s happy. I found that little scene brilliant as it showed that everybody complains about the same things, suffers from the same things etc, that being gay doesn´t mean you´re life is always a different one, it primarily means you´re sexual preference is a different one. I also liked how he asked her where she found that phone number of his and she replied „coat pocket“ or something like that and he looked at her with an expression of compassion, as he was exactly knowing what finding that number and making that step to approach him meant to her.
Well, well, I think this movie is pretty underrated and the bad reviews it may have gotten are signs of the time the movie came out in. It´s certainly not a pitch perfect movie, but what movie is? I think it deserves to be discussed in the same ranks as Brokeback and others, as what it did at a really unwelcoming time was amazing.
I hope today, with a movie like Brokeback opening up a lot for discussion, people will start reviewing this movie in a more positive light and with more openness and they will find a gem that was ahead of its time and I hope the makers and participants of this movie, especially the actors, will finally get the credits they deserve for it.