Come Undone

I have to do this ... (Major Spoiler Ahead)
It is never my style to defend a movie just because people disagree with me. Yet looking through all the comments that slam the movie for having no plot, and even those who like the movie are unable to provide any solid reasons other than the encrypted deeply moving or honest, I feel the need to give my two sense. So bear with me.

Let me first say that I don't think Presque Rien is the best gay movie ever made. Looking at the cover with two naked young guys, I expect it will offer little more than "tasteful" eye candy. But I came away feeling this is a lot better than I expect, and for the exact reason so many other complain about, the plot.

The story unfolds with Mathieu, after suffering from depression; revisit his family summerhouse to pull his life together. It is the same place where two summers ago he met his first boyfriend, someone he just broke up with. Upon arriving, Mathieu pick up a wild cat that's roaming on the street. In the flashback, when Mathieu arrives his...

OPEN YOUR MIND
I think some of the reviewers of this film were too busy waiting for nudity,sex scenes, and simple exposition. This is NOT the french version of "Beautiful Thing" or a soft core romance novel type movie. It is challenging only because it moves away from the "coming out" or "cute boy" genres of gay cinema.
All the characters are realized wonderfully with a minimum of dialogue. The use of silence is a tool that makes you focus your mind and ask questions of the movie. Nothing is pat.
This is a movie that treats it characters (and the audience) with a respect one rarely sees in gay themed movies (one need only compare this movie with simplistic dreck like "The Broken Hearts Club" to understand the difference between respecting your audience versus pandering to it).
This film makes you focus on a young man who is dealing not just with his nascent homosexuality but also serious family issues and a lack of direction in his own life. All these things add to a well-thought...

This is Real Life!
This movie left me bewildered and thrilled at the same time. I can't stop thinking about it ever since; about these two characters, and about this magical thing that happens to them at a key point of their emotional development. I felt much sorrow and I was very deeply moved by this movie; but then, isn't it what an outstanding movie is supposed to do to you - grab your feelings and make you think?
I really had no problem with the internal timing (3 different periods of the story that we keep jumping back and forth into) - to me, it appeared fluid and I always understood in which time-frame the story was and why we had jumped. This "broken chronology" did not confuse me, rather I found it added much in depth by showing a violent contrast in the main character : the innocent and playful adolescent vs the wounded young adult he'd become.
Because this is what I found powerful in this film : by depicting a young man and his coming-of-age (this really is a character...

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