I never wanted to watch this movie. In the year when it came out, the trailer was playing constantly for at least 5 months and it really looked bad. The trailer made this movie look like it was soaked with clichés.
I finally watched this movie today and I am truly impressed. Sure, the main storyline is the coming-out story, but it is really well done and also there is so much more to this movie.
Most of the characters are well rounded, they all have their flaws and strengths. The gay guys aren't presented as saints and the heterosexuals are no ignorant gay-bashing crowd. It would have been so easy to make this movie play like a gay vs. straight story in which the straight team bullies the gays and the gays gain confidence (in fact, this is what the trailer made the film look like). But that's not the story here. On a group-level, it is a story of heterosexuals overcoming their insecurity with homosexuals and gays taking a look behind their own stereotypes.
The coming-out-storyline is pretty common stuff. There is nothing really new here but it is still well done. What made this movie really hit me hard and bring me to tears was the coming-of-age story that goes along with it. Rarely ever have I seen a movie that captures so well how beautiful it is to be young and how much it hurts when your best friendship is torn apart by growing up and falling in love. The scene in which Toby is close to panic because he knows that his friend Achim split from the group in order to have sex with his girlfriend made me remember my own youth and how jealous I got when a good friend of mine suddenly had a girlfriend. I believe that the most painful aspect of this scene is not only that he is in love with Achim himself, but that there is a feeling of loss.
Sure, you know you are being selfish and jealous by not wanting your friend to have sex. You know, you wouldn't act any differently. But knowing that right there and then it might all change and you might lose him to another person and experiencing this fear.... I really know and understand this feeling. And when Toby goes looking for them even though he knows he shouldn't and watches them the scene almost broke my heart.
The great thing about this movie is that you cannot only appreciate it on a homosexual level, but also on a plain friendship-level. I am pretty sure that while watching this movie, everybody will remember his youth sentimentally, the innocence, what it was like at the time when we realized that we soon would be free to do whatever we wanted and plans we made. And then... that dreadful experience just a little while later when we had to understand that the prize for this freedom was the loss of our innocence and the end of the carefree days.
This movie understands youth and treats it seriously. It is warm, funny, sentimental, sad, romantic, sexy and truly beautiful. I really hope that the gay element does not turn too many people off before watching it, because as I said, there is a lot more to it and these people will miss a perfect gem.
I finally watched this movie today and I am truly impressed. Sure, the main storyline is the coming-out story, but it is really well done and also there is so much more to this movie.
Most of the characters are well rounded, they all have their flaws and strengths. The gay guys aren't presented as saints and the heterosexuals are no ignorant gay-bashing crowd. It would have been so easy to make this movie play like a gay vs. straight story in which the straight team bullies the gays and the gays gain confidence (in fact, this is what the trailer made the film look like). But that's not the story here. On a group-level, it is a story of heterosexuals overcoming their insecurity with homosexuals and gays taking a look behind their own stereotypes.
The coming-out-storyline is pretty common stuff. There is nothing really new here but it is still well done. What made this movie really hit me hard and bring me to tears was the coming-of-age story that goes along with it. Rarely ever have I seen a movie that captures so well how beautiful it is to be young and how much it hurts when your best friendship is torn apart by growing up and falling in love. The scene in which Toby is close to panic because he knows that his friend Achim split from the group in order to have sex with his girlfriend made me remember my own youth and how jealous I got when a good friend of mine suddenly had a girlfriend. I believe that the most painful aspect of this scene is not only that he is in love with Achim himself, but that there is a feeling of loss.
Sure, you know you are being selfish and jealous by not wanting your friend to have sex. You know, you wouldn't act any differently. But knowing that right there and then it might all change and you might lose him to another person and experiencing this fear.... I really know and understand this feeling. And when Toby goes looking for them even though he knows he shouldn't and watches them the scene almost broke my heart.
The great thing about this movie is that you cannot only appreciate it on a homosexual level, but also on a plain friendship-level. I am pretty sure that while watching this movie, everybody will remember his youth sentimentally, the innocence, what it was like at the time when we realized that we soon would be free to do whatever we wanted and plans we made. And then... that dreadful experience just a little while later when we had to understand that the prize for this freedom was the loss of our innocence and the end of the carefree days.
This movie understands youth and treats it seriously. It is warm, funny, sentimental, sad, romantic, sexy and truly beautiful. I really hope that the gay element does not turn too many people off before watching it, because as I said, there is a lot more to it and these people will miss a perfect gem.