Awful, just awful.
Does any of it make any sense?
Well, the movie definitely takes some patience, but I don't know if I'd call it awful. I watched it last night (rented it) and I have to admit I was less than pleased with the ending. And I'm not really a big fan of movies with so little dialogue as this one had, but after a second look (yes, I watched it a second time and with the commentary) I appreciated it more. This is an excercise in subtlety that I think a lot of folks will have a hard time with.
I found the Mark character the most interesting of them all. I guess he was the one I could relate to more. I found the Jasper character insufferable and downright unpleasant and I had a hard time understanding why Mark would be interested in him in the first place. At the end, when we find out where Jasper wants to be--and who with, I thought, "typical." I also thought that wherever Mark's journey took him, he was better off.
Sister, when I've raised hell, you'll know it!
Much better told as a short story by Gore Vidal titled The City and the Pillar. Disappointing indeed, but far from the worst gay-themed film I've ever seen.
I found Mark to be broken, lost, and extremely emotionally stunted. Jasper and Mark had some same sex play as teens, like many people have, and the vast majority of those people do not go on to indentify as gay, or involve themselves in gay sexual encounters or relationships.
Seems like they had a relationship based originally off of loner-insecure guy who was enamoured with the popular jock, felt special and validated by his attention. Mark, a closet case at the time, fell genuinely for Jasper, and has romanticized their encounters over the passing years. Jasper has grown up, and is a straight man despite their couple times fooling around, while Mark feels trapped in the past, clinging to their encounters, turning their sex play into a romance.
The film, IMO, is not about Jasper lying about his sexuality, or his obviously genuine love for Wendy being a cover or a lie. It's about something in the past that both men left unreconciled, that needed to be dealt with. And by the film's close it's dealt with, and we see the perspective that they've come from. The handjob scene at the end was searing. It meant the world to Mark, who clearly has been pining for Jasper sexually AND romantically all these years. For Jasper, who delivered it in a cold, removed way, it frames the fact that for him those days are over, not a part of who he is today, and were nothing more than a sexual phase. He's letting go of the confusion, and he's moving on, sad as it might be. He literally kissed Mark, and all that they were, goodbye.
Not the best movie, but I do feel the final 8 or so minutes were powerful in very subtle way, well acted, and poignant.
"The handjob scene at the end was searing. It meant the world to Mark, who clearly has been pining for Jasper sexually AND romantically all these years. For Jasper, who delivered it in a cold, removed way, it frames the fact that for him those days are over, not a part of who he is today, and were nothing more than a sexual phase. He's letting go of the confusion, and he's moving on, sad as it might be. He literally kissed Mark, and all that they were, goodbye."
Regarding your comments: It is reminiscent of the interaction between the two characters in Chuck & Buck with Mike White.
It's been so long since I've seen "Chuck & Buck" that I almost forgot I had! But yes, great catch there. The sexual encounter at that film's peak is definitely a more exaggerated, obvious, and frankly bizarre version of the one in this film.