Made out to be a Jerk


I just caught this on Lifetime. I'm a heterosexual male that has had many gay friends over the years. Is it just me or did this movie make him seem like an ass?

I mean he was an ass to his family and friends in the movie. Was he like that in real life? I know he was going through a lot...I live in the south and I've seen what the gay community has to endure here...not to mention everywhere else...but did that mean he had to be so nasty to his family and friends?

I dunno...maybe the movie got him wrong.


Dwayne

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I am watching this movie as I type this and I'm sorry I did not see this as him being like that to his friends and family; I saw a mixed up emotional young man, who was afraid.

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[deleted]

You might be right. I'd like to watch it again.

Peace,
Dwayne

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I think they wanted to portray him as a real human -
In so many movies, the main protagonist always acts like a friggin' saint, you know?
This was a true story, so they wanted to make him look real. Sure, he was annoying to his family, but hell, he was young, and you can't expect all young people to be super peachy <shrug>
Besides, he was having problems with himself a lot of the time...that sort of pressure on anyone can really affect their personality, mostly in a bad way...but you notice near the end, he got nicer as his homosexuality became more normal to him.

"It's really difficult to open mayonnaise when your fingers are covered in your own blood."

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Despite wanting to see it for a while, I just saw this movie for the first time recently (thanks, YouTube!) and I've got to agree with you: it did make him out to be an ass. I'd take it one step further, though - his mom and dad (his dad, slightly less so) also acted like jerks. Pretty much everyone in this movie was sort of hostile/on edge, which I guess is understandable for the parents since they're dealing with their son's death, but it's less understandable for Matthew in the flashbacks. I think the only person in the entire film who seemed genuinely nice was Romaine, and that seemed almost entirely due to the actress playing her: she managed to make some really sharply sarcastic comments sound like loving jibes. I don't think the actor who played Matt did a very good job. I also wasn't fond of Stockard Channing. I think Pamela Reed (see: Jericho) would have done a better job - she's a better actress and looks more like Judy Shepard, anyway.

From what I've read, he wasn't like that in real life. In every article, he's described as quiet and polite. Obviously, he wasn't perfect, and I'm sure there were times when he blew up at people, but they could have been more balanced in portraying his good vs. bad qualities. I think he deserves a better movie than this - a major motion picture, with good direction and a good soundtrack, no more of this ham-handed "everything dramatic should be blurry" stuff.

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It was a Lifetime movie; did you really think they'd do it properly?

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I don't see it the way you did... Matthew was shown as an emotional young man who went through difficulty in his coming out process. Most of all however, he was human. I'm sure that there were some things that he did and said in life that weren't the best, but don't we all?

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Poor kid,he was even raped,and I think that's how he got his HIV.
If I were Matthew,I'd be an emotional wreck.He was a brave young man.

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