Hapless 33-year-old gay man with only a few friends volunteers to take a new drug which promises to make him heterosexual. The trouble with this premise is, the central character (inhibited and wounded) would be unhappy in any sexual environment, either with a woman or another man. Writer-director John Baumgartner doesn't seem to take this into consideration, and so puts our hero into uncomfortable scenes such as the one where he gets intimate with a female co-worker (who is seen as desperate and deluded). Low-budget and self-conscious, the picture doesn't even have the energy to hint at any intriguing ideas other than straight-vs.-gay. Baumgartner sees the casual indifference of the bar crowds and gives us a glimpse of the man's office job and his lonely life, but the main issue ("What would life be like if I were straight?") is too facile and obvious as a story-hook. Why not make the guy a bigot who is forced to take a gay pill? The point made here is strictly a dead-end one, made even worse by one-dimensional people who don't merit much interest. * from ****
Review of Hard Pill
