A very human story

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2006)

Just saw this film, and I was more moved by it than I thought I would be. Actually had to blink away a few tears before the lights came up at the end. And being a red-blooded American dude, I NEVER cry at movies...or so I thought.
This film touches some very deep emotional chords. I have heard it said that the central American pathos is loneliness. And the companion to loneliness is an aching, unfulfillable longing for understanding and companionship through this all-too-brief sojourn on planet earth.
As with most of us, these two guys dreamt of the utopia that love promises...and then settled for a compromise better suited to the 'real' world. It is just there that the film makes its most poignant impact. Rather than arguing for a utopian vision (though Jack certainly keeps that ideal on the front burner), the film accepts the reality in which the story takes place; a reality framed, to some extent by the prejudices of society, but more importantly by the choices that the characters themselves make.
In America anyway, we CHOSE loneliness...rather than social ridicule, or personal turmoil and self discovery.
Why? I do not know. But this film is bold in its exploration of these very human issues.