The Seminarian (2010)
The Seminarian is a story about Ryan, a closeted gay student in his final semester of seminary studies. Despite his school's hostile stance towards homosexuality, Ryan has two gay classmates - Gerald and Anthony - in whom he secretly confides. He is also close to his religiously devout mother who, as things stand, is unaware of his sexual orientation. Ryan needs to complete a solid theological thesis in order to continue doctoral work at the university of his dreams. As he works on his thesis 'The Divine Gift of Love,' Ryan begins a relationship with Bradley - a guy he has met on the Internet who seems perpetually unable to commit himself. Ryan confides in Gerald and Anthony, only to learn about their romantic struggles as well. Consequently, Ryan questions his views on God's gift of love.
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Reviews
As Good As It Gets
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Full disclaimer; I actually started watching this believing it was another movie with the same title, yet within seconds of the opening sequence and hearing that whiny "gay voice", I knew exactly what this film would be about; a self-indulgent, boring gay-themed movie where type-cast Mark Cirillo proves (yet again) that full frontal nudity in a gay indie does wonders for any actor's career (he keeps his towel on for a full 50 seconds this time). If anyone really had the writing skills to explore this theme (i.e. a gay evangelical Christian in seminary) there would be ample fodder for entertainment, but of course the writer/director relied on Mark's willingness to essentially do anything in front of the camera, hoping that someone would find it titillating enough to forget the script and acting is complete crap. Too many cases of long pauses, contrived dialogue and meaningless scenes to count. Surprisingly, out of a cast of horribly bad actors, Javier Montoya stood out as being exceptionally bad; I didn't believe he had a pulse, let alone that he was gay seminarian. In fact, other than some theological quotes and questions thrown in here and there, this is just another low-budget, badly made film about gay angst. I would not recommend this movie to anyone.
Is it a spoiler when I say this movie left me depressed?If you want to watch a seemingly endless rambling movie that is depressing, then I highly recommend The Seminarian. If on the other hand you don't want to waste one hour and 41 minutes where when you get to the end you sit there wondering why anyone would even make such a film—then I don't recommend it. My guess is that the author of this piece is a very unhappy man and wants you do be as well. Like, "Love is a curse from God and why should I be the only one that suffers? I want my audience to suffer as well." This film was not for me and I am pretty angry that Josh Middleton of GPhilly recommended it. I wish I could sue to get my time back. I obviously won't watch anything else he recommends or that Joshua Lim, the writer and director, makes. I don't need my every movie to have a happy go lucky happily ever after ending...but God. It's a good thing I'm not suicidal!
Truly, I went into this movie with curiosity, interest as the film deals with a seminary student, I had attended a seminary for a time, and I too have been watching a number of gay films recently.When the film was over, I was joyful, I was satisfied with regard to my curiosity, and I was able to relate in many ways with the ups and downs experienced by the main character.Because I could relate to the character, because I believed the actor was portraying a gay character, because the other people were like people I have encountered so far in life, and because the film pretty well answered and addressed some of my questions as a gay Christian, I give this film a 9 out of 10.
This movie may not be for everyone. It isn't fast past and there are a lot of long shots and sequences. The acting it about what I would expect from an Independent film. I thought the story was good and interesting as I know a couple of people who went to Seminary School (I guess that's how you say that). I really enjoyed Mark Cirillo in this (he is adorable I don't care what anyone says) and I thought he did a good job and was a very likable character. I liked the idea of following one person on their personal journey that's what made it relatable and enjoyable to me. It's a shame that it is so poorly rated because they really did do a good job.