denpub I should have remembered that a movie which opens with a scene from Romeo and Juliet is not going to leave me feeling light and happy. Holding the Man lived up to the expectation.In the sphere of tragedy amidst love I choose to not watch or ready anymore. Too many people I've loved are now dead. I am now in the green room so to speak, although I hope my call to my final performance is years away. Nevertheless I my mind now includes the deceased names of people I've loved or at least liked but are no longer here in bodily form.Watching Holding the Man did not lighten that load any. Hell, it may have added some weight.That is what is damnable about this movie. It does not let up. It's trajectory of love finding its own level is frustrating at times but seems to be clear. Cupids arrow is direct and the love between these boys is direct. Parents get in the way but they find their way. That's great and leads me to think this will be a movie with a happy ending.Then the scene. Our first introduction to AIDS in the movie suddenly shifts the direction of what could have been a pleasant train ride. The train hit a switch which sends the train, John and Tim and us in a very different direction. A direction I wish it did not go.Do I sound like Debbie Downer? Let's just say that the movie is so well done that it carried me through several emotions (including the "Don't do that, you'll be discovered" sort of emotion). Then it rides into the tragedy that AIDS through into our lives. The inevitable, unfair, unjust crime of nature against humanity.Include the awful scene of John's memorial service where Tim sits in a row with everyone else, and where the priest expresses gratitude to Tim and another friend for being with John during his last few months.I could not help but want to stand in that church and scream at the priest, "F#% liar!" I really wish someone did. But that apparently did not happen.It did make me realize that religions such as Catholicism are still babies where the real world is concerned. As an institution its leadership are adults who refuse to grow up and deal with reality. Not to neglect when religious groups stand against evil in the world. But where sexuality is concerned so many religious remain children. They are incompetent to dealing with matters of sexuality.Don't know if or when I can watch this film again. It is just too painful to know that such beautiful, Heavenly blessed love between two boys who grow into men, who still love each other in ways that religious folks often can only fantasize about, were removed from this life so quickly and so easily.A beautiful, lovely movie. There were times when I was wondering where it was going. The length is a bit much. But for excellent story telling, using the power of film this movie deserves a rating of 10.

Movie Critic There are a lot of these gay author tells all/life story made into a movie films. They are popular at film festivals and win all kinds of awards there. I have yet to see a good one. I stopped watching this movie after about a half hour... so the film failed with me. I didn't care for either actor but especially not Ryan Corr (playing Tim Coragrave). 30 year olds playing teenagers usually doesn't work..and especially the way this thing was directed and acted. Tim Coragrave looks like some sort of mean queen (not that bad but almost) -- John Caleo (actor Craig Scott) is basically boring.Look there are certain parts of middle class growing up gay that I don't want to relive over and over or even see them in film except maybe briefly to set the stage... For one thing most of it was boring and the gay stuff humiliating. These are painful or embarrassing memories you want to mostly forget.This film should have been heavily edited. Also a more honest story would have helped ...Caleo as captain of the football team?--gay fantasy time here. The supporting actors especially Corgrave's parents were almost comically bad. So ho hum...Popular cliché ideas of glamorous lives (authors models etc..) make for mostly silly dull movies...Full of predictable icons heros and melodrama. Tim Corgrave becomes a writer(pseudointellectual fodder)...unfortunately a bad one I might add.I googled and this film unbelievably won all kinds of awards. Gay parts have become mainline any more so hopefully this sort of PC false accolade will stop.AVOID

Bert Krus I wasn't searching for a movie about aids. The subject usually gives me a very uneasy feeling. I don't want to remember those days when some very good friends of mine died in agony in front of my eyes. I was quite young back then, and did I really understand what happened? No, when you're young life looks endless. So when this movie, unexpectedly for me, because I had not read anything about it, brought up the aids subject, I had to take a deep breath. But the movie is so well executed that it is much more than an aids drama. This movie is a piece of human history and every high school student should see it. I am in my 50s and now aids is something of the past, thanks to great medicine. It cuts through my heart that young men like ones in this film had no chance at all. Especially in the 80s gay liberation wasn't that far, and so much human needs have been denied to these men. Thank god society has improved on these levels, and it only could by telling these important stories.

Haden Young I'll say from the outset as a gay male I wanted this to be great and elements of it were, so I'm not coming from a perspective of critical indifference. I read the book when it came out and so knew what I was in for, all in all I must say the film was pretty faithful to it and didn't shy away from its most confronting or gruelling contents. I wondered beforehand whether it would or not and was impressed that it dealt with all the heaviest stuff head on, and did so well. The movie also gave me insights that my imagining as I read the book didn't, which I found illuminating and very interesting. I am from Melbourne, Australia where most of this story happened, so am familiar with its locales and some of them are of personal significance to me, so there is some overlap. There were many very strong elements in this film and as with Woody Allen's 'Irrational Man', it should have been great. The historical, social and cultural details of the mise- en-scene, costume, dialogue and even inflection were incredibly accurate, having lived through them myself, and lovingly, painstakingly recreated. Strong performances abounded, with standouts being Craig Stott who gave an incredible performance as John Caleo on par with Meryl Streep only less gimmicky, and that of the actress who played his mother, who gave a beautiful, nuanced performance. The film was for the most part very watchable, with warmth, drama and humour. Its filmmaking basics were very strong. Unfortunately, director Neil Armfield and/or producers went for an overlay of somewhat cheesy, narrated-by-crowd- pleasers pop songs that spelt out the emotions episodically and in a too obvious, simplistic way sometimes. Some of these songs and moments worked and were very touching, but evidently they were aiming for the youth market and it didn't work for me. Second of all, the film is of a genre satirised on Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell as 'Reflecting Your Comfortable Middle Class Life Back To You And Validating It', Micallef's alternate title for such Aussie schlock as 'Packed To The Rafters', from whence came Ryan Corr who played Tim Conigrave, perhaps tellingly. I would have loved that kind of thing in my twenties, not knowing any better, but now it makes me want to reach for a bucket. And it's not cynical, bitter old age, it makes for dramatically inferior melodrama in my opinion. These two in my view major flaws really marred 'Holding The Man' for me and while professional filmmaking abounded and there were many fine elements, sadly these two errors almost dragged it down into prime time soap opera fare at times, 'Home and Away'. The excellent TV series 'Puberty Blues' which covered the 70's in a similar fashion managed to avoid such pitfalls, was a serious drama and a lot of fun, and managed to achieve art in my opinion. I have a reverent amount of respect for the blood, sweat and tears that go into a movie production, especially when there are some fine elements and great performances, so I don't like to criticise, but due to these elements I could only give it this lower rating.