Diagonaldi Very well executed

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

guil fisher The writer, John Baumgartner, had an original idea, but failed to make it work. That a pill would change a person's sexuality. A gay man, in his 30s, all of a sudden decides he's tired of being rejected in the bars and in life. So, why not turn straight? Then no more problems. Alas in life it doesn't work that way. Take a pill and girls turn you on. No, it doesn't happen. Our hero just fools himself in believing it will change his personality and bring him happiness with a woman. But our hero's problem seems to be not in the sex department but his own self confidence in himself. He lacks any commitment in anything. Seems to be dream walking and fantasizing his romantic escapades, including a gorgeous straight friend who gives his body to him out of friendship. This is what annoyed me in the film. Using others for your own weaknesses. Using them and then dumping them when it doesn't work. The cast seemed to be good for the most part and fit the roles well. Our hero, Jonathan Slavin, was very cold and filled with enough self pity. But I never felt the emotional toll it took on him. He seemed too staid in the role. However Susan Slone, his best friend, was perfection. With the right amount of sensitivity not to go over the wall. Her breakdown scene was simply precious. Quiet and filled with such raw emotions. Scotch Ellis Loring, his good gay bar hopping friend who cannot commit to any relationship, was well cast. Jennifer Elise Cox played the woman he befriends in a sexual relationship and goes home to meet the folks. She did a good job and came off sympathetic as well. Jason Bushman played a straight young beauty in our hero's office that is understanding of our hero's ailments. When he tries to approach him with his own doubts, I felt the script fell flat. Sort of a rush job ending. My favorite actor in this was Mike Begovich as the giving straight friend who really loved our hero in his own way. His wearing down and falling apart was so natural and realistic, I wanted to just hold him and weep. Brilliant work.So, good idea, fairly written, well cast, yet lost original concept along the way. Worth seeing for some of the fine acting.

dmanyc A friend of mine got me to see this film. He said he was worried that I would find this film sad. Actually, I didn't find the film itself sad. I found the film to be boring, badly acted, and not very cohesive. What's sad is that a film with a great story idea fails to deliver.Problem #1: the lead character, Tim, the one that wants to take the pill to be straight. Tim is a self-loathing gay man in the beginning, middle, and end of the film. He has a decent job, some devoted friends, and an unrequited crush on a new guy (Matt) with questionable sexual orientation. When Matt brings a bigoted female companion to Tim's B'day party, upsetting Tim, Tim announces that he's going along with the procedure, his friends are horrified (can you blame them?), he takes the pill, and...what happens? He hits on his female co-worker then coldly ditches her. He hits on a woman at a café. He starts dating a blonde chick. He rebuffs his old friends and co-workers. One friend attempts suicide because of Tim's rejection. Meanwhile, he's still self-loathing and still has gay mannerisms. So basically, this pill just gets you to sleep with women and become cold and heartless, but you still retain the self-loathing gay mannerisms you had to begin with. And along the way, he pops more and more of these pills (he's suppose to take, I believe, one a day) and by the end of the film, he loses all sexual arousal for both sexes, and the doctors that got him in this mess in the first place don't know why it happened, how long it will last, will it be permanent, etc. We haven't found a cure for cancer or AIDS, but these docs found a way to make gays straight temporarily and get them to lose their arousal for both sexes along the way. So much for a miracle pill. Tim should've taken a personality pill. There's nothing likable nor sympathetic about Tim at all. Instead of feeling sad for Tim, you feel like he got what he deserved for becoming an human guinea pig.Problem #2: The unrequited crush, Matt. In the beginning, his orientation is a big question mark. He brings a girlfriend to Tim's party, upsetting Tim and inspiring him to take the pills in the first place. Along the way, Matt asks another co-worker Joey why Joey acts "like that" (out and proud). A gay man would never, ever ask such a question to another gay man. At the end when Matt kisses Tim, it felt so forced. Did Matt all of a sudden take a gay pill? Throughout the film, you never got the sense that Matt was gay at all. The end felt tacked on at the last minute, as if to give Tim what he always wanted but now can't get.In a nutshell, I'll take a Jagged Little Pill over a Hard Pill any day.

James Boyd I started watching this movie while sitting one evening channel surfing. It caught my interest...and, at the end I said, WOW! I very seldom say WOW to a movie! There was laughter and there were tears. That is pretty rare in a movie these days. The initial premise is a pill which makes a gay guy go straight. You assume it is going to be a comedy. But, once it gets going, it is heavy. The movie brings to light how such a pill would ruin wonderful friendships and relationships. Feelings are hurt, bridges burned, and then mended again. Especially if you are an older gay person, it brings back memories from your own life. I remember thinking how I wish there was "straight" pill. As the movie shows, it is not such a good idea after all. Be sure to see it and enjoy.

CIMC If there was a pill that would change gays into straight, would you take it? If so, what would the effects be? Those are two of the pertinent questions in the excellent sci-fi flic Hard Pill. Tim (Jonathan Slavin) is a sad little cubicle monkey. His personal life is a disaster. He pines for guys he doesn't seem to have a chance with, mostly because they are straight or straight- ish anyway. This is a point made clear by his coworker Joey (Scotch Ellis Loring) when he says that Tim has "a sea of fags at his disposal and he stays home with a straight man." Nowhere is Tim's social life more depressing than when he practically begs his straight friend Don (Mike Begovich) to let Tim fellate him ("Can't we ever just watch a movie?" Don asks?). As Tim's personal life is defined each of the cast is introduced with a graphic that works as a spectrum of sexuality. It's an interesting and clever idea to show the shades of gay and straight in each character though it wears out its welcome a bit by the time the entire cast is introduced.The film uses "street interviews" with various folks to introduce a new controversy involving a pill intended to provide an opportunity for homosexuals to go hetero by making a chemical change in the brain. One of the best one-liners in the film has a Christian fundamentalist making a selectively supportive comment about the drug. With Tim feeling that, "The only currency in the gay world is being attractive," he signs up for the human trials for the drug. What Tim doesn't seem to realize is that each of his friends and neighbors has problems as bad or worse than his own, they just have ways to deal. Sally (Susan Slome) covets Tim but continues an unfulfilled flirtation with a coworker. Joey throws his balls between more legs than the Harlem Globetrotters but he lacks an emotionally satisfying relationship. Don's relationship is contingent on his continuing use of antidepressants. It's to the credit of writer/director John Baumgartner that these subplots are so well developed without sacrificing the central story or adding superfluity.When Tim begins using the pill it's not just his world that changes. Each person has a place they fill in others' lives and when one tries to change something so fundamental to their own self it goes without saying that there be effects on their relationships with others. The film's major success is in exploring these results. After a first straight screw that he apparently regrets, Tim finds himself attracted to Tanya (Jennifer Elise Cox) with results transcending the chemically dependent nature of their mutual attraction. Slavin's excellent performance makes Tim a sympathetic anti-hero. Despite Tim's consistent aversion to sensible solutions for his problems, one can't help but root for him to succeed, even if it's the result decidedly unsympathetic actions on his part.Baumgartner's superb story offers a lot to viewers beyond just the visual story and fine performances from the cast. Musings about the effects of chemical personalities are as relevant to the real world as they are in Hard Pill speculative Los Angeles. The gradation of sexuality is a path rarely explored but it's done well here with the help of not only a graphic, but a healthy dose of remarkably non-exploitive skin. Throw in a brief yet profound argument for gay marriage and you've got yourself one hell of a movie. Enjoy.