The Sum of Us (1995)

Simply Perfect

best movie i've ever seen.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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

A comedy, one more, in this life that is so little comic indeed. We start with the promise of a revolution coming through and we end with a request or piece of advice that you better be home soon, and in between, love, romance, tragedy and a lot of empathy and misery with a little bit of happiness sprinkled on top, at times angry happiness because of the silly decision you took and it broke the potential happy development you were hoping for and looking forward to getting on a silver platter. You just got Saint John the Baptist's head.We are dealing here with grown up men and women all in strange situations. A young gay man living with his parents and the father behaves as if he did not know and he turns ugly when it becomes news stuff on TV. Another gay man living with his widower of a father who is not gay but accepts his son the way he is though he is invasive, maybe an intrusive voyeur, and in a way blocks his son's way to happiness.That same man gets in touch with a lady through some meeting club and the two fall for one another but the night when things were going to go through, New Year's Eve, at his place, the son being out for his own fun, she comes across some gay magazines and cannot accept the fact that she had not been told before, and if she had it would not have changed anything because she just does not want to go across this line.Just minutes after she drove off, when the fireworks start celebrating the New Year, he has a savage and wild heart attack or stroke and he will remain paralyzed on one side and without the capability to speak any more. In other words she broke his heart and that is not a metaphor, she literally did break his heart, boom.That is sad, very sad, but it is a comedy, so there must be a happy ending and life will take care of some haphazard meeting of the two young men and then life will be on tracks again. But gosh it is not easy to build your own happiness when you are not a photocopy of the standard middle of the way unoriginal model imposed by ethical and moral norms in our society, even when things have changed legally. Between the law and reality there is more than a simple Strait of Malacca: there are thousands of hostile pirates with weapons everywhere up over their heads ready to raid your life to prevent you from being happy.Enjoy the details.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This is an amazing movie. It digs into deep personal feelings, no matter if you're gay or not. It shows a beautiful side of being human. This movie talks about love. It is cliché, but it is so true. It talks about friendship with love, how important it is for most of us to have the right partner and the supportive family to be just happy. If you are not a fan of Russell Crowe, watch this movie anyway. It may give you another sight of his early career I was myself ignorant about. And I don't need to say how brilliant Thompson is.I wish the tale would have a longer time line, and talk about what happens after.

I just saw this movie on the Independent Film channel, which may be showing because of the popularity of Brokeback Mountain in theaters now, which has another young Aussie's, Heath Ledger, award-winning portrayal of unrequited love for another man. In "The Sum of Us", Crowe (at age 30) portrays a straight-acting but fully "out" gay man, (Jeff Mitchell) a plumber and rugby player in his mid-twenties subtly acting his disappointed love for another gay man his own age. Crowe's brilliantly nuanced performance underscore his acting genius and the viewer can favorably compare this work to his captivating work, three years later, as a tough cop (Bud White) in love with a high-class call girl in "LA Confidential." "The Sum of Us" however has a more universal theme, as Jeff and his widowed father also work out their relationship: Filial love is contrasted with romantic love. Also, black and white flash-backs to his beloved grandmother's long-term lesbian relationship highlight the universality of the movie's theme. This is no skin-flick; it is raw emotion in a compelling plot, artfully and sensitively written, acted, directed and filmed. Kudos to IFC channel for broadly showing this film, which deserves wider distribution on DVD in the US.

I found that the father was not selfish, but rather very open and embracing of his son's lifestyle. The first time he looks directly at the camera in the beginning of the movie while opening the door, I played it back to make sure I saw that. Of course, as it turns out, the father and sometimes the son talks directly to the audience throughout the entire movie to explain their life and situation a la Malcolm in the Middle. It works and I found it very refreshing. Even when the father is incapacitated later in the movie, he is able to go back to normal and talk the audience when the son leaves the room. Yet somehow, I was able to suspend disbelief and was glad that I was able to hear what he was thinking using this movie technique used in Ferris Buehler's Day off.The father is extremely charming.