Sunday, March 27, 2011

Bedrooms and Hallways (1998)

And we're back. Sorry I haven't posted in months and months. Can you forgive me?


On the subject of forgiveness, can you forgive Rose Troche for this movie? Can I? Can anyone? Bedrooms and Hallways is somewhere between mediocre and bad, and it shouldn't have been. There is real potential here, really squandered.

The facts: it is a romantic comedy about Leo, a gay dude (Kevin McKidd, aka Lucius Vorenus from Rome) who has an affair with a straight dude (James Purefoy, aka Marc Antony from Rome). His friends are all wacky or have wacky stuff happening to them, and they are played by--are you ready for this list of actors?--Tom Hollander (In the Loop), Hugo Weaving (Priscilla, Queen of the Matrix of the Rings), Jennifer Ehle (BBC's Pride & Prejudice), Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral), and Paul Higgins (JAMIE in The Thick Of It and In the Loop).

It is an amazing fucking cast. Plus, several of them make out with each other. If the script were remotely competent, this could have been a jewel of frothy no-stakes queer rom-commery. Instead, it is a meandering, dull disappointment. Here is the most disappointing part of all, SPOILER ALERT: Leo, the main character, a gay man, ends up with a woman. Now, sexuality is fluid, yes indeed, and I have no problem with real life gay people dating anyone of any gender identity because obviously whatever, but there are already plenty of movies--too many, in fact--about masculine cis dudes and feminine cis ladies pairing up. To see that in an LGBT rom com makes me feel so fucking cheated. Et tu, queer cinema?

- Didn't Like It

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