A Very Serious Person (2006) User Reviews

Love and Where to Find It

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 5 January 2008]

A VERY SERIOUS PERSON is a tight little film with a fine story, solid cast and enough thoughts about connecting isolated individuals to make the movie both entertaining and touching. Spanning the ages from young teenagers to middle age to elderly, each focusing on basically needy souls trying to find solid ground, writer (with Carl Andress)/director/actor Charles Busch has developed an ensemble effect in casting just the right actors to relate his ideas.

As a summer for consolation for the elderly ill Mrs. Aronson (Polly Bergen, reminding us what a fine performer she is!) has requested that her 13-year-old grandson Gil (P.J. Verhoest), whose parents are deceased, come live with her on the Jersey shore. Mrs. A is known for being a difficult patient, going through live-in nurses like wildfire, and living with her trusty housekeeper Betty (veteran actress Dana Ivey), but she is in for a surprise when young Gil moves in - a slightly feminine lad with a penchant for old Hollywood movies, writing grand stories about great heroines, dressing like Marie Antoinette, and refusing to learn swimming or any outdoor activities in favor of watching 'Gone with the Wind' whenever possible.

Into this household enters the latest 'nurse', a gay Danish ex-dancer Jan (Charles Busch) who by admission is 'a very serious person' - obsessive compulsive in his care for Mrs. A, coping with the flustered Betty, and rarely smiling at the antics of the overpowering Gil. Each of these three rather glitzy people is lonely, and each in his/her own way wants acceptance and love. The story is how the three learn from each other, give and take, and find the niche that proves the summer was not wasted.

Busch draws marvelous performances from Bergen, Verhoest, and Ivey as well as creating lovable side characters: the outrageous gay hairdresser (Carl Andress) and his associate (Alexa Eisenstein), Jan's love interest (Simon Fortin) among others. The growing relationship between Jan and Gil provides a platform for some serious issues about accepting sexuality and the interaction of all the characters on the failing Mrs. A is warmly managed. This is a comedy with an edge and above all it is a solidly entertaining movie. Grady Harp

Coming of age?

[imdb1 · 7/10 · 2 January 2008]

I liked this movie, but then again - I like all movies were a 13 y/o boy plays the lead, especially when the movie deal with homosexuality. So, I had high expectations when I started to watch this movie. Unfortunately, there turned out to be a great many things not as one would expect. I think I might have been put on the wrong foot by the IMDb plot summary: this is NOT a coming of age story. In a forum comment I had read that Gil, the 13 y/o boy, is gay-- but also that aspect isn't really worked out in any way. In the movie, at one point, Gil says "I am gay", light heartedly, as if it's the most normal thing on Earth. He does not have ANY problems with it, it seems. The reason he gives to think that he is gay is because he likes "pretty things", but when Jan asks him if he is attracted to other boys, Gil answers "I don't know," as if he had not given THAT aspect much thought yet. Basically, Gil is behaving like a VERY young child at times (especially in the pool scenes with Jan), more like 7 or 8 years old.

All in all, this makes the movie a rather unrealistic story. A 13-year-old boy who thinks he is gay either denies that, or at least has huge troubles with it, OR he already passed the point of accepting that he is sexually attracted to other boys, which would indicate a very MATURE boy-- with a mental age of closer to 18 instead of 7.

The above mentioned scene is all we get to see about this "coming of age" thing that the movie supposedly would be (so it is not). Gil is not struggling with sexual feelings at all. He is undoubtedly feminine, like the stereo-type gay hair-dresser type, and likes to fantasize about being a female actress, dress up in a dress, or put on make-up. Right. Although without doubt there are gay boys who like that, the number of movies where a gay boy is feminine by FAR exceeds the percentage of feminine gay boys in reality. I had hoped to finally see a movie with a gay boy who is, and acts, like a boy: boyish. But who nevertheless is attracted to some other boy. It is that ATTRACTION that starts the whole thing of confusion, that no sooner than after years of struggling ends with acceptation. This movie has little to do with reality therefore. This is not the typical young gay coming-of-age teen as they exist everywhere in this world. A disappointment thus.

I still give the movie a 7 -- because well,... Gil is cute, the topic is still my kind of topic, and that has to be rewarded somehow.

Very Touching Characters

[ramdrool · 7/10 · 2 February 2009]

I'm not gay and the gay people I know are not obvious about it at all, so I can't speak about how fair or unfair the characterizations and stereotypes may or may not be. Lots of movies make unfair stereotypes - in fact, when you compress the life story of people into two hours - stereotypes are often very useful, hopefully they are not cruel. What I do find about this movie is some incredibly real dialogue and situations. Yes, the acting is so bad sometimes its comical - but at its core, this is a smart movie and the main two actors, really come through as real people reminding me to keep trying to be myself and keep doing the best I can. Life is awkward and plans rarely work out, but it is the ones we love and the moments we share with each other that make it all tolerable. Gill and Yon are awesome characters and I could watch them all day.

Surprisingly good

[jm10701 · 5 January 2014]

This movie is more impressive and interesting than it is entertaining. Its entertainment value resides ONLY in Polly Bergen's excellent, unfailingly believable and moving performance as a dying old woman. She's been around all my life (I'm 65), but I never liked her until now.

The movie is interesting because of Charles Busch's surprising decision to play strongly against type, in an unattractive male role, wearing practically no makeup, instead of the exceedingly glamorous female roles he has played forever. I can't say he's very good as the Danish nurse Jan, but he's not at all bad, and I don't particularly like his near-hysterical, mostly unfunny female performances either. This movie's weakest moments come when he drifts closest to his previous work, in manic scenes with the two hairdressers.

The movie is impressive because, over and over again, characters did things that surprised me, in a good way. The dying grandmother, the precocious, apparently-coming-out boy, the gay male nurse - all could have been tediously predictable stereotypes but weren't. That's good writing. The ending is particularly surprising and gratifying.

This movie is also impressive because for the most part Busch succeeds in charting new territory for himself well along in his career, playing restrained, male roles if he wants to. I think he'd get better at it the more he did it. It's always nice when people break the molds they've been cast in.

Don't bother

[garylife · 2/10 · 29 March 2008]

I have to say, its not very good. Polly Bergen is fine in this film.The rest are so so. I'm gay and honestly , there are so many cliché's for this time in history that its just sad. We started watching it then turned it off, then decided it would be fun to make fun of the rest of the film. But all said, the basic idea of the film is good. If it was re-written with less contrived lines and better acting it could have actually been prety good. Over all i would not recommend it. IN additon the this is coo coo thinking line is so lame. On top of that the fight in the hair salon is funny because its so bad. The lesbian sister in the room with them while they are trying to get it on is so weird its sad.

What a waste...

[bubulac · 3/10 · 3 March 2021]

I really did my best trying to watch this movie, but after one hour I decided that there are better things I can do than continue wasting my time. Childish jokes, unlikely characters and situations, disgustingly gross scenes here and there... Watch at your own risk.

embarrassing

[wlumpkin · 1/10 · 23 June 2008]

An example of all of the worst gay stereotypes all in one movie.

And Charles, why do you speak in that weird pseudo British/high-brow accent, and insist that the kid speak that way too? Did anyone else notice that all of the soundtrack music is exactly the same? You should stick with the good old Hollywood camp drag stuff that you are so good at! Die Mommy Die II, the Sequel!! I don't see the value of spending time and money on a project like this; there are so many REAL life gay youth stories to be told and we should be seeing those, not this garbage. Sheesh, what a waste of time. Embarrassing example of gay cinema.

I Liked It/may contain spoilers.

[katewa44 · 8 July 2008]

I found the movie to be fairly light-hearted and entertaining. I put it in the same category as certain books that I read - mindless entertainment. This is not a derogatory comment - it just means that it is something to watch that is entertaining but doesn't require my full attention.

As for the comments that "Gil" doesn't act his age, I think that is appropriate given how he has been/is being raised. He doesn't hang around with other kids his age and given the trauma of losing his mother when he would have been around seven, it would be natural for him to be emotionally immature. I do agree that, for someone his age, he seems too comfortable with being gay but again, it could be that he was raised in an environment of acceptance and was exposed to all kinds of people.

"Jan" and "Lee" do seem a bit much but I think that only adds to the comedic value of the movie. Since I'm not gay, I can't speak to whether or not the roles would be considered offensive to the gay community (I do agree the scene in the motel room was over the top) but "Lee" does remind me of a few gay men I used to know.

As for wlumpkin's comment about "Jan" speaking in a highbrow English accent, "Jan" is supposed to be Danish and just uses proper English.

Good intentions

[MrDeWinter · 1/10 · 7 October 2021]

Good intentions but bad execution and script. Especially P. J. Verhoest and Charles Busch are rather annoyingly unwatchable.