For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I actually watched this film about 2 months ago, but I still remember it vividly. Reading the book in a week after watching the movie also ensured that my life for the next month was going to be a roller-coaster of emotions. This movie will make you cry, a lot!The thing I adore about Holding the man is how Corr and Stott played their characters so well and fittingly to the real Tim and John in the book- it makes the film as a whole so much more engaging and heart-breaking. The movie's actual love story context is SO much more than just a love story. From protesting homophobia to harrowing encounters with disease and how it can effect a relationship, Holding The Man features so much that by the end of the movie, you will feel like you've gone through something... beautifully tragic. I honestly felt depressed for a solid 2 weeks after watching this film. This is perhaps a reason why I should give this movie a 9 star rating instead of 10, but I just can't! Months on from watching the film, John and Tim do still occasionally crop into my mind; but not in a sad, melancholy way, but in a peaceful way. The film made me care for these men I've never met. Something no other film apart from Brokeback Mountain made me do.I recommend this movie so highly if you love an epic love story that actually is so much more than that. It's beautiful and happy and exciting and sad and horrible all in one! I love it so much.

In fact, it's a tragedy, especially when Timothy cried and told his mum it was like he had killed the man that he loved. However, I still feel a bit of sweetness. They had 15 years to live together, savoured all tastes of love, it's enough, isn't it? After all, who infected first is not the most important thing because they loved each other, till they died. Actors, and actresses as well, are so amazing. If Ryan and Craig make me feel a strong love, Camillla and Kerry show me mothers' love for their sons regardless of their situation. I don't like the fact that two in three LGBT film I saw end up with AIDS, but I always think that AIDS is not a problem, the way we face it is a problem. And the way Timothy and John faced AIDS together is really really touching. They fell in love when two of them were young, and even if they cannot see their ageing, Timothy stood by John when John died. There are three scenes I like the best, it is when John told his father he was not ashamed (because of his disease), it is when John wanted to sleep with Timothy the last time, and it is when Timothy softly told John he was here so that John could pass away with serenity because John had promised that he could not go without Tim at his side. I love this film!

This has been a favourite book of mine for many years, one I always have a few spare copies of to lend out to people, not because I think the literary skills are phenomenal but because I think it is a beautiful story of passion, lust, leaving and love. I've tried not to include spoilers in my review but there are one or two things that really perhaps are if you haven't already read the book or are aware of the story of Tim and John.I saw the play in London some years back, and thought it cleverly done, and I had hoped to see it one day become a movie. Whilst I didn't doubt there would be some challenges in doing this, I thought it had potential to be retold in the cinematic form as beautifully as it is told in written form.Let me start by saying I think the Actors were well chosen and performed very well. The character of the two lead personalities of the book were to a large extent captured, Tim's extroversion to John's quiet thoughtfulness. I thought the roles of both sets of parents were equally well played, with the supporting friend roles perhaps being a little bit neither here nor there in terms of what I think they really bought to the film (unlike their roles in the book).What I did think was missing was much of the actual story, there were for me many parts missing, essential parts that enabled me as a reader to understand some of the decisions and directions Tim took in his life, parts of the overall journey he was living and how that impacted John and others around him, by their absence the movie lost something - parts that were rich in the telling were summarised by some random sex scenes and a visit to a gay mens sauna.Whilst I appreciate the need to confidence a book into a film, the absence of these parts of the book left me feeling less like I knew either character, and thus less invested in them. Obviously I knew where the film was going in terms of it's conclusion, and in the book that conclusion was heart rending sadness, real lump in the throat tears on the cheeks stuff.... the movie was more for me just a case of 'yep OK so they put that bit in but left this and that bit out'. I was not able to connect with the characters because so much of their story was missing.Am I glad it was made into a film, yes. Do I wish the script writers had included more, yes. Do I wish the editing perhaps had been a little more judicious in places and possibly a little less ruthless in others, yes. Would i watch it repeatedly, which I do with movies I love, perhaps not so much, and would I recommend others see it now it is becoming available through DVD/Blu-Ray/iTunes - yes, but only if they have not read the book. To me, this movie was a little bit of a disappointment for the reasons stated above, it could have been more, it could have told the viewer more about their lives, their struggles, the way they fought to overcome all that they faced, but really for me it could have created characters for these good actors to inhabit who one could connect with on an emotional level and share the lows and highs, instead, it felt as if they were cardboard cut outs of themselves.As someone now living with HIV myself, I am only too aware of the struggles they faced, times have changed, medication is available but the experiences people went through in those times are all to real in our very recent past, and the stigma, shame and negative attitude is still so prevalent - this story is one of love overcoming all but the worst of times and the worst of situations, it gave and perhaps still gives many hope in finding love in life despite the challenges and in spite of some of the choices we make on purpose. I really just wanted more, more of them, more of the emotion and turmoil, the guilt, the anxiety, the passion and the sense of being denied that was so full in the book. Alas, to me it did not happen.

Ryan Corr (Tim Conigrave) and Ryan Stott (John Caleo) give truly magnificent performances in this film, never understating or overstating their characters. Having worked in the HIV/AIDS sector in Victorian and Queensland from the early 90s through to 2008 I was somewhat skeptical about this movie and its ability to depict a horrible period in the HIV epidemic while remaining true to the love story between Tim and John. Once I saw the movie my skepticism was unfounded.The book "Holding the Man" is not a great work, however it does provide an insight into the discrimination that gay men experienced because of their sexuality and the horror of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS virus in the gay community. The movie is similar and faithful to the narrative. When I started working in HIV/AIDS prevention in the early 90s I met Tim Conigrave a few times. My sense of him was that he was brash, political and took no prisoners. Ryan Corr achieves all of this and more. And the movie leaves nothing to the imagination from the adventurous sex in saunas through to the illnesses of AIDs and John's prolonged and ugly death due to the virus. I'd forgotten how dreadful the impact of HIV/AIDS was on those during that time. The film brought it all flooding back from the countless pills to be taken, the salvage treatment and surgery to the tragedy of those gay men who died. Performances by the supporting cast such as Anthony La Paglia, Kerry Fox, Guy Pearce and Camillah Ah Kin as the parents of Tim and John are convincing and at times moving. The performances of the rest of the co-students and friends are delightful. Catch it before it finishes screening, you won't be disappointed.