Paul I just watched this mess and barely had the interest to click further, having NEVER heard of it in the 5 years it's been out. It was on my queue so I must have added it at some point but OMG what a piece of crap!The story is well tired and in this instance, would be by the time you were done hearing the plot told as if it were an audio book.I can just read the synopsis presented to Foundations and charities all over Europe for this overly expensive rehash of midnight dancer bollywood field of dreams steven king make-up. "Rehash" does not begin to cover the scope of this slop.

gradyharp Some viewers, unfortunately, will pass on this film as the cover of the DVD makes it appear to be a gay sexploitation waste of time. It is anything but that. Written and directed by Jean- Claude Schlim (with assistance from Christian Thiry and Robert David Graham) this is one of the finest films about the early days of the AIDS pandemic and long with 'Longtime Companion' is probably one of the more important films for the public to understand the inception of the disease that still hovers darkly over the globe. The cast is rich in talent and the method of unfolding the story is superb.In opening credits we see an apparent carefree young lad running through sunlit cornfields - perhaps reference the path to Oz: where that goes is revealed at the end of the film. It is 1984 and a gay high school lad Frank (Layke Anderson) escapes his rigid parents by moving to Amsterdam where he lands a job as a bar boy in a gay dance club, the House of Boys run by a man referred to as Madame (Ugo Kier) who keeps everyone in tow as well as performing in drag on stage. Frank is assigned a room with a straight boy Jake 9Benn Northover) who is the club's most popular dancer and who makes considerable money participating in passive physical gratification for the gentlemen who frequent the club. Jake has a girlfriend who sneaks in through the window of their room at night for trysts with Jake: Frank must then move in with transgender Angelo (Steven Webb) and raunchy mohawked dancer Herman (Oliver Hoare) for the night. Frank is talented and wants to leave his job at the bar where he assists the gentle lovely Emma (Eleanor David) and become a dancer. In the meantime Frank has fallen in love with the unattainable straight Jake but the two become close friends. Jake has been saving his money as a dancer and as an escort to run away with his girlfriend, but when his savings go missing he realizes his girlfriend has taken the money to abort Jake's baby. Jake is decimated by this but at the same time he leans on Frank for succor. The two boys realize their friendship has turned to being lovers. Jake introduces Frank to his way with clients and in the process falls through a glass tabletop sustaining cuts the require sutures. Frank takes Jake to the hospital where they encounter Dr. Marsh (Stephen Fry) who ultimately discovers that Jake has no T cells - and the mystery and cruel head of AIDS arises. Jake is fired form the club by Madame who fears for the reputation of this new plague and Frank and Jake move in together, compliments of Emma. From this point Jake has obvious Kaposi's sarcoma and the rest of the film is how Frank and the friends of the club are supportive. The unique aspect of the story is that it is the straight boy receiving passive sex from clients is the one who becomes infected. The beginning of the film is repeated with the full story at the end.This story could have easily been melodrama but the manner in which the story is handled and the fine acting on the part of the actors involved allows it to rise into the realm of very significant films. It copes with tragedy but it also emphasizes the honest meaning of love in all forms. Highly recommended. Grady Harp

johannes2000-1 This movie surprised me, but not in a very positive way. I know they intended to recreate the atmosphere of the eighties, but I could hardly believe that I was watching a movie that was made as recently as in 2009! The script is close to melodramatic, the acting was (with a few exceptions) awkward and the settings looked cheap and fake. I'm convinced of the good intentions of the makers, that is: to serve the important cause of keeping up the awareness of the world in regard to AIDS, but this cause would have been better served with a little bit more of a balance between the grave message and the way to deliver it.The storyline was okay. Somewhere in the eighties Frank, a young gay party-animal travels to Amsterdam to submerge himself in the party-circuit, and in search of a roof over his head he's offered refuge in a boys club annex cabaret annex brothel, where he finds work and warmth among the "family" of boys and the proprietor Madame (Udo Kier). Frank falls in love with one of the dancers (Jake). After some misunderstandings this love is reciprocated, but then fate comes down like an axe and Jake is diagnosed with this new terrible disease, the "gay cancer" AIDS. The rest of the movie we watch Jake slowly dying.This premise can hardly be called original. Many movies already have pictured the early days of AIDS, with it's dramatic consequences. So you have to come up with something pretty good to make a difference. Unfortunately that's not the case here.For starters: the script is way too dramatic, on the brink of larmoyancy. The last half hour of the movie all the actors gather around their dying friend, perpetually crying and sobbing in each other's arms, screaming to heaven out of sheer frustration, etc. etc. The slow decay of Jake is pictured in a very realistic and extreme way, which may be intended to make an important point (like: see how terrible AIDS is), but this more or less overshadows the realism that's necessary to the dramatic storyline. We hardly get time to grow some sympathy for both lovers, who in the beginning of the movie both are extremely egotistical and opportunist; then they suddenly turn into lovers and wham: there's the disease to spoil it all. This made it very hard for me to feel for either of them, in spite of the buckets of shed tears.Then I had some reservations about the settings. Why Amsterdam (apart from it's notorious sex-image)!? They never show us anything of the real Amsterdam, and to my knowledge there never was such a sophisticated gay cabaret in town (if only!). Furthermore everyone talks fluently and accent-free English. In Holland?? It's as if there's not one Dutch person in town. Even the good doctor has an English name (in a Dutch hospital??). In the club we see a few erotic dance-acts, and there's also some gay making-out between lovers, but for a 2009-movie with the specific subject of an erotic venue/brothel, it's all filmed very discreet and almost prudish.Layke Anderson as Frank at least has an interesting screen-presence, and it's clear to see that he is willing and enthusiastic, but the direction and script made his character so one-dimensional that he failed to move me. His acting consists of bursts of emotion: extreme mirth, sudden anger, total devastation, etc. Again it's probably the direction that's to blame. Benn Northover as Jake looks like he was barely going through the required motions and didn't much believe in the whole project anyway. There was no chemistry between the two whatsoever. Veteran Udo Kier of course gave his usual professional performance, but he doesn't really get enough chance to make something more of his role as "Madame", the brothel proprietor, than a stereotype, he's too much busy with being haughty and snubby and ad-libbing one-liners. His drag-act though is absolutely great!! Stephen Fry is okay but his only task is to be extremely friendly and understanding and look wise. Not much to put your teeth in. But I did like Eleanor Davis as good Samaritan Emma and I especially liked Steven Webb as Angelo (later: Angela): beautiful, funny, sexy and with a very easy and natural way of acting, even in the unnatural queery attitude he had to play, and that's a real accomplishment! To end positive, there were a few scenes that seemed to be from a totally different movie and that were surprisingly beautiful. They were flash-backs of Jake's childhood in some Mid-West-like forlorn part of America, where Jake as a boy lost his mother, had to endure his father's (sexual) abuse and at last decided to elope from. It sounds like a bit much, but they comprised all of this in a handful of very short but poignant scenes, in an exquisite photography. It's a shame that the rest of the movie couldn't have been in this same vein.

dat27 I saw this nice little movie in Luxembourg one week or so after it's premier here. Basically it's a story of two teenage boys who leave home for different reasons and meet up within a Gay show club in Amsterdam. After falling in love, one ends up sick with AIDS. Stephen Fry plays a sympathetic doctor but basically helpless with the knowledge of the disease back in the 80s. All the cast act great. I was impressed. Apart from a few short porno scenes, it is a neat little gay drama with some nice music and film direction. There are also some scenes filmed in Luxembourg and Morocco.If the movie doesn't come to your town, buy it on DVD when released!