Review Of Like A Brother

At less than an hour in length, this film compresses a lot into a short period of time.  However, nothing that feels like an ending is among the elements included.  This troubled me.  Perhaps the directors took too literally the old show business adage, "Always leave them wanting more."

It is much like a literary short story that focuses upon character development and lets plot fall by the wayside, except that the film has an interesting plot as far as we see it.  But only when thinking of it as a short story--after the fact--did I begin to respect this small film.

Gay Sebastian leaves his small French town to go to Paris.  He does so because his affection for his best friend (the quasi-brother to paraphrase that friend), Romain, does not reciprocate his unhidden lust.  (That lust, by the way, seems entirely justified to me.)  Once in Paris, Sebastian finds, uh well, sex.  By the film's end, Sebastian's character has evolved into a more mature understanding of himself and of Romain.

I just wanted to see more expression of that evolution than the budget (?) allowed.  Alas, perhaps I just wanted to see these attractive young men longer.

Genre: Gay themed drama

Director: Cyril Legann, Bernard Alapetite

Language: English sub-titles

Availability: DVD

99Gay-Men.us Rating: ***

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