Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997)

To me, this movie is perfection.

the audience applauded

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is one of those stage productions that for some reason works best on stage and loses something when brought from three-dimensional live theater to two-dimensional cinema. It probably loses even more when seen on home video or (even worse) broadcast on television with commercial interruption. The intimate tone of the story requires the attention one gives to a performance on a stage.There is an advantage, of course, to filming: The actual surroundings can be used, rather than the best facsimile that can be achieved on stage. So what the film lacks in intimacy, it makes up for somewhat with the realism of the location, which is practically a character itself.The cast includes most of the original play's New York cast, with one notable exception: Jason Alexander steps in as the most broadly drawn of the eight characters, which makes his miscasting all the more obvious. I have often stated that it shouldn't matter if a gay man were to play a heterosexual role. If you're caught up in the story, and the actor fits the role, it works. However, the reverse it NOT always true--especially in this case. Buzz needs to be played by a gay actor, or it comes across as mockery of gay mannerisms. However well- intentioned Alexander was when he went into the film, the result is a cringe-inducing minstrel act. I have seen a live version of L!V!C!, and the actor playing Buzz nailed it, so having seen Buzz played well made it all the more obvious.That being said, the script is a good one. The story takes you back to the 1980s and a generation of men hovering around 40, and it was told from their point of view, not through heterosexual eyes. This was not common when the play premiered. So younger viewers may not appreciate how groundbreaking it was for gay male characters to speak openly and unapologetically this way. And AIDS was seen as much more of a terminal illness than it is now, with so many men you can see in a gym who could be HIV+ and still pictures of health. So take it for what it is and enjoy what still works.

The best thing in this movie is the guy who plays the 'hustler' boyfriend - Randy Becker. He deserves success.The rest of the performances are contrived, unbelievable, stereotypical, overplayed, shallow, emotionally erratic, painful (not in a good way) ... and Jason Alexander is positively frightening! ... and then come the twins !! Yowza ! The only allowance is I can make for this is the year it was made, 1997 - the world was much different then. And, attitudes toward 'gay' and 'AIDS' were much more fearful.However, these people just don't make sense,... but the setting is nice!I can't recommend this movie to anyone. If you have any awareness of the real world, it will offend sensibility. If you are looking for role models to come out as, don't watch this ... it's complete misinformation and should not be taken seriously.

Adapted from an off-Broadway play, the story has a dancer (STEPHEN BOGARDUS) inviting his friends to spend the summer at his secluded 19th Century mansion in upstate New York (with Canadian locations substituting for NY). The characters are stock gay men, the kind that exist in other plays like THE BOYS IN THE BAND--only this time none of them are quite interesting enough to care about.All of them, it seems, are living under the threat of AIDS, so we have reminders of LONGTIME COMPANION here too. Most of the performances are okay--nothing really subtle here--but JASON Alexander as the campiest one who hides his anxieties with an unflappable sense of humor seems a bit out of place when it comes to the serious scenes. JUSTIN KIRK does a nice job as a blind boy whose brief fling with handsome RANDY BECKER gets him into more trouble than he can handle. BECKER is the young Hispanic dancer who flaunts his sexuality at every turn.There's some casual frontal nudity for all the skinny dipping scenes, but the sentiment gets sticky whenever the serious aspects are touched. JOHN GLOVER, as twin brothers as different as night and day, gives the most professional performance.Not likely to appeal to a wide audience, it's got some good moments but the slim plot line wears thin after the first hour. The characters are all a bit too shallow to make a deep or lasting impression and there are too many mawkish and cloying moments in times of stress.

Often it is very tricky to adapt a play, especially one of a rather long length, to the screen and keep the story and characters intact. Though I have not had the pleasure of seeing a theatrical production of this film, I do own the play and have read it numerous times. Although the film did suffer a tiny bit from some things being edited out, characters speaking directly to the audience, further character insight etc., it is still a wonderful film, full of superb acting and characters that you fall in love with.The characters are brought to life with superb accuracy, due to the fact that all the actors, except Nathan Lane, reprise their roles that they held on the stage for about all of two years. And it shows that they have bonded as artists with both each other and their characters.As with almost all films there were performances that personally stood out to me. John Glover shows the audience why he won the Tony Award for his performance. Playing twin brothers, 'John the Foul and James the Fair' showing the defination of range. The other actor that really stood out was the always brilliant Justin Kirk, playing the young, blind Bobby Brahms, showing why he won the OBIE Award for his spectacular performance. The cast also includes Stephen Spinella, two time Tony award winner for Tony Kushner's masterpiece "Angels in America", Jason Alexander, and many other actors that deserve much more recognition and fame than they currently have.This is a beautiful film with precious characters that you will love.