Holding the Man

A very well played out, beautiful and emotion-charged film. The performances by the 2 leads are terrific and features a plethora of cameos by Australian heavyweights. Never seems to be too preachy or go heavy handed; it's a great love story no matter which way you look at it. Be sure to bring your tissues.

Magnifies the horrors, sacrifices, and love that HIV-AIDS can bring out of humanity. My SCORING: 99-96=Great; 95-90=Very good; 89-85=Good; 84-80=So-so; 79-70=Boring; Below 70=Forget it.

Starts out with a cheesy high school production of "Romeo and Juliet" (Shakespeare with Australian accents is pretty awful), and the flick, unfortunately, never gets much less cheesy than that. Ryan Corr is excellent.. it's too bad he didn't have better material. It adeptly tugs at the various heartstrings, but never rises above the level of sentimental hokum.

Where it fails, it doesn't do so miserably. Where it succeeds, it more than makes up for the predictable moments. This story has been told hundreds of times on film alone, however this one is definitely one of the better crafted films on the subject. I was able to look past the fact that the same actors were playing 16 year olds in the beginning and 30 year olds at the end. This film is more personal than the average AIDS film and for that it gives it depth. Corr's performance is captivating.

Love is tragic, especially when you're gay and living in the age of AIDS. Australian drama based on the true story of lovers Tim & John and their struggle for acceptance. Touching, but executed a little too artificial for it's own good. Those hokey wigs certainly didn't do them any favors. But overall a positive homosexual experience.

A somewhat half "crazy" teen story with weird wigs, that suddenly took a serious turn. *Good