Konterr Brilliant and touching

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

donwc1996 This is a very sweet, very touching film. The characters are so well drawn that you are instantly brought into the situation which many of us have found ourselves in. The lead character grates a bit but his buddy more than makes up for him and then some. The lead character's mother, however, practically steals every scene she's in because she is so beautiful and so warm even though she drives her son crazy as Mother's usually do. Let's face it, they just can't help it. They mean well, of course, but they still drive their sons crazy and this Mother definitely drove her boy nuts. The lead's buddy, however, wins Mother over and their scenes together are the most touching in the film. In fact, it was just those scenes that juggled my brain and reminded me I had seen the film some years ago but had forgotten it.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This film tries to explore the complicated love story between a Muslim, born in Kenya, raised then in India, then in Canada, and moved to London to have a photographer's career, if the details are right, without a father who died early and with a cousin who considered that sex had to be satisfied with him since girls were out of the picture. That practice is quite common among Muslim teenagers, the big brother taking his toll on the smaller brothers But that is trite too. So how can we make a good film about that or with that? Simple. Move the action from Toronto to London and make that young Alim have a doppelganger in the identity of Cary Grant who is advising him on everything and particularly on his sex life. Cary Grant, the doppelganger, was reconstructed from the numerous films he watched under the influence of his mother in Kenya or India and in Canada. That gives the film a disquieting dimension already.Then he has to have a love affair and a boyfriend who has to be English, and he is Giles. But the mother decides to visit her son and that sets the whole situation upside down and catty corner. They decide to make her believe they are just roommates and that Alim is in love with a girl. Giles even tries to charm the mother into believing anything, but Alim gets jealous and tells the plain truth to his mother who leaves at once, in the absence of Giles who had gone to the gym.Then Giles is angry in his turn and moves out and has an affair with an Olympic swimmer. During that time Alim went to Toronto for the wedding of his cousin. Of course it is all false and awkward, especially with the cousin trying to have a stag party with Alim for fun and in remembrance of the past. Alim refuses but the mother was just behind. She will learn from her sister on the following day that her sister had negotiated a beautiful marriage and plenty of grand children with her son by letting him do what he wanted with Alim and probably others. Pure selfishness of a mother.Alim's mother understands then that she has been selfish in another direction. And that's when Giles arrives in Toronto, in the wedding party, and Alim runs to him and passionately kisses Giles in front of everyone. Then they can go. Alim will have to set Cary Grant on a permanent vacation, and love will live forever and ever.The absence of the father is a real trite commonplace banality in the fictional context of a gay man. The over-presence of the mother is nothing better, though the direct consequence of the first element. This is banal and plain ordinary popular psychoanalysis that explains nothing and even irritates the audience who would like to have a little bit more than clichés.But the film is fine because it is well done and the subject of the contact between two societies that are so different, the Pakistani or Indian Muslim society in exile in some western country and the western society of this or these countries. Why don't the two young men just say so and run for it and let all the witnesses on the sidewalk stare and yell and roar, if they think they are and have to be judging and executing lions? Because of fear? Because they may lose what they want to keep? Because they are afraid of growing out of the traps of a family? Many other reasons that make the love at time selfish and sour.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

scullystwin42 Entertaining but uneven movie. It's a cute concept, and Kyle Maclanahan is wonderful as the spirit of Cary Grant. I found the lead actor to be a bit uneven, but buoyed by excellent performances by the supporting actors and actresses. I was glad it didn't fall into the "gay guy forces straight friend to play fiancée" cliché - it hit it, went on, and we weren't forced to listen to tired jokes. Worth a rental, emotional but light-hearted. The only jarring part was the "relationship" between the lead character and his cousin - I found it hard to believe that an intimate relationship between first cousins, especially male, would be permitted.

TinTin-6 This is a feel good movie from beginning till end, with fun and likable characters. Just an unpretentious film that doesn't take it self too serious. Kyle MacLachlan is a bit much as Cary Grant's ghost, sounding more like Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot than good old Cary. Funny though, considering Tony Curtis based his accent in Some Like It Hot on no one else than ... Cary Grant!!!! What's really interesting is that most actors in this film had to act with an accent different than their own. Jimi Mistry is a well known actor in the UK and had to switch from a British accent to a Canadian, while the actor playing his boyfriend, Kristen Holden-Ried, is Canadian, playing ... a British guy! It was also very cool to see Linda Thorson, my favorite Avengers-girl, as the Giles' mother.