A Different Story

A time capsule of a certain L. A. circa '77/'78 in which Meg Foster and Perry King are believable in their roles. The script and the film's direction are what make it hard to swallow.

Lesbian marries a Belgian gay man to keep him in the States; they fall in love for real, but he cheats on her--with a woman. Gay leading characters (male or female) in a mainstream motion picture hadn't been in vogue for a number of years--you'd have to go back to "The Fox" or "The Killing of Sister George" in 1968, "The Boys in the Band" in 1970 and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in 1971--which makes screenwriter Henry Olek's efforts here doubly disappointing. He has the brave notion to introduce homosexual people in a bland, middle-of-the-road setting (no camp attributes), and then drops the ball (or, perhaps, the ball was taken and dropped for him). You can't blame the actors--Meg Foster or Perry King--they are doing what they were assigned to do, to push forward a false plot. But they are pawns in a heterosexual's fantasy, that the gay lifestyle can be "corrected" with the "right partner." The agenda here is obviously unbalanced, and yet director Paul Aaron forges on with Olek's romantic clichés as if the only audience for their picture were straight, upper-class men and women who want to be able to say when it's over, "I always knew it was a choice." * from ****

This film was seen by my wife and I when it came out in 1978. It was a revelation to us. We actually thought that we were the only gay and lesbian couple who had ever married and had children. Obviously we were wrong. Love may come from where you don't expect it and maybe don't want it. But we both chose that love anyway.

And no, it never changed our sexual orientation. That kind of stuff is for the Christian wackos.

When we were young we both had affairs, but never with the opposite sex. As we aged we stopped having extramarital affairs.

This story is not far fetched. However, the suggestion that they became heterosexuals seems pretty unrealistic to me. My wife and I have been sleeping together for the last 40 years. We are still gay. End of story.

In the 70's, there were few people as beautiful as Meg Foster and Perry King. The idea of them having sex and falling in love isn't terribly far fetched. The issue in A Different Story is that they both happen to be gay and have a one-time drunken fling and then Foster's character gets pregnant.

It seems more like the concept of a wacky comedy, but A Different Story plays it fairly (pardon the pun) straight throughout. It's completely unrealistic and even quite offensive, but Foster and King manage to make it seem entirely plausible. I actually found Foster's former lover so much more offensive with her creepy bipolar personality. At least Foster and King's gay characters were shown as decent, stable human beings.

I'm surprised that I wasn't more offended by this movie, but it's really enjoyable and sort of charming and sweet.

This movie is as unique as it is overlooked......A Different Story is just that, it shows how out of the need to survive or maintain, one can find the capacity to love if you have an open heart as well as an open mind. I first saw this on cable in the late 70's and it truly depicted the limitations of the gay community at the time. I believe this movie was ahead of its time in depicting a little slice of an obscure way of life. It is truly a classic in the sense that it was a precursor to what is now depicted as the extended family. This film should be available on DVD/VHS so that not only the extra ordinary performances of Meg Foster & Perry King can be acknowledged, but to show how far we have come & still have to go where relationships are concerned.