Just a Question of Love (2000)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

the story is just so real, the way that gay people in closet feel, the way they try to manage their life while trying to experience love and sex, questioning their identity while they know it (Laurent)...and the other character (Marc) a gay guy who knows what he wants and is so determined, and their efforts to beat the odds and stay with together...all of this is shown in a simple, real and fulfilling way. All of the characters feel so real and admirable, this wonderful movie is different from all the other ones at gay subject, every gay and gay parent MUST SEE IT.

This drama was made for French TV.It seems that France makes much better TV movies than we do in the US.This starts in the same way many comedies start (meet -cute). Our young handsome hero has not come out to his parents. VERY GOOD REASON, his father is a BIGOT of the first order. Our young lad's somewhat older lover does have an understanding Mother. We do have a very pretty young lady who is a fellow student of our hero. The parents assume its a romance between girl & boy.Now all this we have seen before in many films. We expect the typical ending we see all the time,NOT here,I cannot reveal the ending, I will just say it is a most satisfying one.The acting is first rate all the way through,,The production values are also first rate.I really do not like downing American TV movies, But we do not make this kind of realistic Gay Themed films that can & should be seen by a large audience.Ratings:***1/2 (out of 4) 91 points (out of 100) IMDDB (9 out of 10)

"Just a question of love" is no doubt a well-acted film with a rich story. Previous reviews have dealt with the story and the very heartwarming interaction between the two main characters, Laurent and Cédric. This love story alone would make this film great. I thought that in my review I address two other features of the film which in my opinion further adds to this film and making it even greater.This film made me reflect over the difference between Europe and north America with regard to "gayness". I am under the impression (possibly a false impression) that in north America the "coming out" is much more connected to the acceptance of a gay identity with its various attributes. In this film the two main gay characters are a student of agriculture and a researcher in microbiology, hardly occupations associated with "gayness" as, for example, actor and florist. This absence of acceptance or display of stereotypical gay identity may very well give this film a rather radical gay political message, namely that the coming out does not need to involve a "coming in" to a more and more commercialized (americanized?) gay identity. Politics is hardly a central theme of this film, but with the current debate about the political limits and self-imposed restraints of the gay identity in mind, this film got me to think about this political issue.That said about the "centre" of the film, the film also explicitly "speaks" to parents. In the film there are a total of five parents who in different ways relate to the homosexuality of a child of theirs. On the one hand there is the widowed mother of Cédric who has come to accept her sons homosexuality, not by principle but rather out of love for her son. By no means perfect (why should she be?), she is clearly the most sympathetic of the parents who refuses to sit by and watch the joy between her son and Laurent be destroyed. She plays an important role in how the parents of the central character Laurent relate to their sons newly revealed homosexuality. On the other side the uncle and aunt to Laurent stand; they rejected their son, Laurent's cousin, when he came out -- a son who later would die (not of AIDS, though, gay men can die of other things also!). In the film, the aunt is a depressed figure who through most of the film either swallows tablets (presumably anti-depressant) or utters odd remarks, except at one instant where she urges the devastated mother of Laurent to ask herself what "we" parents really mean when we says we love our children, a very important scene in the film as I see it. Both Cédric and Laurent are aware of and fairly secure in their homosexuality, the ones who have to come to terms are the parents of Laurent, they are the ones who have to make the greatest "transition" during the course of the film.The film thus manages to address many relations and questions and does so very well. Well worth to see and as noted above not only addressed to gays.

***some spoilers***I saw this movie and was totally amazed. If you love foreign films you have got to watch this one. Although considered of the "gay-themed" Genre, it totally transcends that label. It captures the essence of extreme passion, especially when Cedric and Laurent first get together; how one has to hide his true self for acceptance, especially from his family; and how a family, especially mother's, react to their son being gay. One aspect of gay-themed movies often neglected is how a gay man's female best friend always yearn for him, even though she has a lowly chance of ever getting with him.THe acting was superb, you really feel like there was real chemistry between the two main characters, although in some scene you could sense that Thouvinin was uncomfortable with the kissing. Gearen-Tillie, was in total control of his character, he was gay but not feminine: counter-intuitive to most other gay-themed movies.