Undescribable Perfection

Fresh and Exciting

Best movie of this year hands down!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Well acted, well made, believable movie. Apparently didn't get the wide distribution it deserved. Treated its subject with honesty humor, and seriousness. If it was a boy-girl movie would, unfortunately, have received more of an audience, but would have lacked the punch that it being a male-male relationship afforded. A sure sign that homosexual subject that would have been taboo a a couple of decades back now treated openly. Kudos.

While I'm not saying this movie is realistic (I don't think most movies are) I will say I found it emotionally honest. This movie is rare in another sense. It involves people who know how to use wit. Very few movies show people who are consciously funny and even fewer pull it off. ALL OVER THE GUY surprised me. I was expecting a feel-good film with some slapstick, but what I got was a comedy with some thought. It is closer to a feel-good film than high drama, but it's not a lie, which most feel-good films are. The acting would lift any script, but the script is really good anyway. The DVD I saw had a commentary track with the director, the writer/star and the editor and, as with the movie itself, the commentary track gave me a chance to listen to people who know how to make a point.

Okay what can I say I relate to this movie. Sweet neurotic nice guy meets damaged bad boy. And guy gets guy at the end. My heart swoons. I am a big goofy romantic what can I say. Finally a movie where the gay characters are not the best friend or stylish confidant to the lovelorn female character.The cast it perfect. Good performances by everyone in the cast.Only regret is that is would have been nice for the stripper to have been interested in Eli rather than Tom. I would really have liked Tom to have been jealous and seen that Eli is just as hot in his own neurotic way.

Then I thought about this movie. Here's what I liked: two men can be openly gay and live perfectly normal and happy lives without being gay bashed like in every other movie ever made about gay men (the only time one gets beaten up, well sort of, is Tom in the bathroom after the AA meeting); gay men don't have to flame or act like women, because they aren't, they are men and happen to like other men; gay men live lives not so different than straight people, with ups and downs, romantically and otherwise; and the movie didn't have the perfectly clichéd ending most movies have in this genre, that love wins out. Sure, in the end they settled their differences, they talked about their feelings and broke down boundaries. They kissed in the end, they danced, and they got together, but they weren't what either wanted, they were what they needed. They didn't get along because they didn't want to, then they got along because they wanted to, in spite of their differences, not in ignorance, but because they acknowledged their own and each others faults to find each other. Ninety-nine percent of people, gay or straight, go out looking for a Prince Charming or Damsel in Distress, which they will never find. Someone once said to me "people should be patient, because when the right person comes along, they'll fall right in your lap." That's kind of what happened here, that both Tom and Eli had preconceived notions about love and their perfect match, and they discovered it didn't matter what they wanted before, because they found maybe what they needed, and discovered the perfect person is a myth, because no one is perfect, and we'll never find what we dream of. We find what we need, and we fall into each others laps. And the filmmakers never said it would work out, but if it did it would be great, if not we know that whatever happens, things would turn out okay. All this, and I haven't even brought up the psychological issues of the characters, particularly Tom, that though not thoroughly explored, are realistic and thought provoking. And what a way to think, that maybe we can be happy if we're not married to our dream man/woman, in the house with the white picket fence, but perfectly happy with friends, family, and the things in life that can be just as important as love.More importantly, I found that this movie was really realistic in portraying gay men. Most movies show the flamers, just one facet of gay society. The fact is gay men and women are all around us, working regular jobs. They are normal people, just like you, and they don't have to act different or be different because they aren't different. Not in any way that's important anyway. So I raise my glass to Tom and Eli, and say accordingly I thought this movie was excellent, and I give it a rating of ten stars. Rock on! PS-- Not sure if there are any spoilers here, but thought I'd check the box anyway, just in case.