bkoganbing Many four letter words define A Four Letter Word which rains from life and love to an old English expletive. This film is a romantic comedy about the young gay world early 21st century New York. The film mostly centers two vastly different gay men Jesse Archer and Cory Grant who has a great name for the cinema.Both work at a sex shop and between dispensing dildos and candy flavored negligees talk a lot about how they see the world. Archer takes life as it comes it's the sex store by day and the man hunt by night. Grant is all absorbed into the state of gay life and the many issues to be resolved. Cory has little time for a love life and Jesse has time for nothing else but sex.Things might be changing when Archer falls for Charlie David who goes to school, but doubles as an escort. But folks in that line of work lie a lot and it becomes second nature after a while, maybe even first nature. Or he could be just a pathological liar. I knew one like that myself many years ago. I can sympathize with Archer you never know when you're being conned.Secondary plots revolve around another couple J.R. Rolley and Steven M. Goldsmith who are having their crises. Goldsmith is a compulsive control freak and Rolley sort of lets everything slide until the big blow up. There's also Virginia Bryan a straight friend who is having wedding jitters and then gets kissed by a girl - friend and then starts questioning her own sexuality and should make the girl, a girlfriend.Still it's the primary triangle that drives the film. Archer needs to take life a little more seriously and Grant needs to take himself a little less seriously.A Four Lettered Word is a nice view of New York City young urban gay life circa 2007. You'll recognize many character in your own lives seeing this film.

matthewlee1985 A Four Letter Word is not a ground-breaking piece of cinema by any stretch. But for all its failings, there is enough substance to enjoy.The plot leans on the weak side and the main character (Luke) extremely unlikeable. I found myself, at times, feeling very disengaged with his experiences in the film.But pushing past this, there are laughs along the way and some of the minor characters actually steal the limelight.The problem with this film is that it throws together all the major gay clichés, and for this reason it stumbles constantly. The director surely must have had more vision than to peddle worn-out and tired gay stereotypes.Successful gay cinema celebrates diversity and breaks free of the constraints and expectations society imposes on homosexuality.If anything, A Four Letter Word is a major disappointment in this regard. I expected a lot more.It's easy to pick holes in this film but there is enough to keep watching until the end.I have given it a solid 5 for a pass and the power of the support cast saves me from a harsher judgment.

Franco-LA This is a vast improvement from the director's first film in that he didn't cast himself in it, since he was not a particularly strong actor or wasn't able, as a director, to entice a good performance with self-direction. The production values are also vastly improved, particularly the sound and picture quality, composition of shots and the overall acting by the cast. Particularly good was Cory Grant as Zeke, who gives what is perhaps the best rounded and most complete performance in the film, and Charlie David as Stephen (with a PH) who appears to make the most with his part as written and sells his line, rather than sleepwalking through the role to 'collect a paycheck' (no matter how small it might have been). The biggest flaws in this movies are the number of sub-plots and threads, including the lengthy marriage drama with the character also carried over from the director's first film, and the performance pieces in the film as well as the alcoholic's anonymous meetings. Otherwise, it acts as a probably decent slice of life representation for SOME gay men in the 20s to early 30s in New York City, but it's neither original nor genuinely engaging. The plots, including the numerous sub-plots, were all fairly predictable and were telegraphed by the first third of the film (from the hooker with the secrets to the friends possibly falling in love, etc.). It's nothing you haven't seen before if you've seen any Rock Hudson/ Doris Day movies, not even the fact that it's about same sex couples, since that horse has been put before the cart far too many times to make this new or fresh.It's probably not a waste of time as a rental but not worth a full price admission at a theater.

preppy-3 Film about flamboyantly gay Luke (Jesse Archer) who sleeps around every chance he gets and doesn't believe in love. Then he meets Stephen (impossibly handsome Charlie David) and falls for him. But can he stop sleeping around and have a monogamous relationship? And is Stephen really as good as he seems? Various other subplots deal with a black/white gay couple, a woman going crazy over her impending marriage and a gay man searching for a direction in life.This film knows it's audience--within the first 10 minutes there are about 5 full frontal nude men shown. (I'm saying that as a good thing). Plotwise I hated it at first--Luke was obnoxious, VERY effeminate and just annoying. However this is needed to see how he changes later on. The movie is colorful and well-made on a very low budget. There are some bad puns, groan worthy lines and truly terrible acting but, all in all, it was a fun and amusing gay comedy. Also it was fairly truthful on showing gay life realistically and it's refreshing to see a black/white gay couple. In acting terms Archer and David are very good and all the guys are handsome and in good shape. Worth seeing.