Focus on the Wrong Character

old_prof

Since this play was written by a young woman, the focus on the young woman (Isabel, played by Elizabeth Banks) is logical, but misguided. Despite the many close-ups of her agonized pretty face, the young woman is NOT the character with the problem here. In fact, the authors contrive a soft landing for her (I won't spoil this one). But it's the young man who has the problem that won't go away after the last frame. I wish Hollywood had the courage to confront the effect of the patriarchal ideal on homosexual males. A gay friend once told me, "These people who say homosexuals choose their life are crazy. If I could choose, I'd have a wife & a house & kids to come home to every night." Some gay guys think they can have it all, & maybe in a few cases they manage it. But to focus on the young man's initial desire to have it both ways, then on his eventual decision (under severe pressure) to give up that dream, and finally to extend the film to include his subsequentexperiences at the office & elsewhere, would be to turn this film upside down. (Also, to keep the length down, several subplots would have to go. Do we need the mother--even mesmerizingly played by Glenn Close--at all?) Perhaps the playwright, like the young woman in the film, has to learn the art of empathy. Good writers begin by writing about themselves, but great ones go on to write about other people.

score 6/10

old_prof 8 August 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1145153/