Long-Term Relationship

I loved it. At first I was concerned about the "stereotypical" depiction of casual gay-sex, but I think it was necessary, and that most if not all of the remaining nudity was within the context of the relationship. So it wasn't gratuitous or distracting. Which was fortunate, because the story itself and the subplots were rich and integral to the story. But it still had that constant tinge of spontaneity throughout. Enjoyable, nice flow.

So if you like it, make sure to watch it again with the commentary on.

The commentary was AS entertaining, if not more entertaining than the movie itself. In a completely different way of course, but don't miss that. It was an hour and a half of ROFLMAO. Plus you get to see all the adorable shots of the movie again.

Long-Term Relationship is one of those films that will go down as a must see for gay film lovers. First off it is very funny. The script is witty at every turn but doesn't lose sight of it's story because of it.

The cast is great. The stand out is Mattew Montgomery. He holds the whole film together. With his good looks and quiet charm, Matthew treads along the zany world of his friends and works on getting his long-term relationship perfect. The other characters are pretty well rounded too. And what is a gay film without cute guys? The cast is full of them but as far as cuteness goes, I am partial to Jeremy Lucas who plays Vincent.

The romance in the film is so natural. The characters of Glenn and Adam develop a real relationship complete with the way they talk to each other to having relationship rules as well.

All and all this is a nice writing and directing debut by Rob Williams. It is an intelligent and funny film about relationships and gay culture. I look forward to seeing other films Rob does.

This film deals with a gay relationship that for some reason has problems attaining sexual fulfillment. As gay relationship which wants to endure, it does smash apart the still homophobic view among certain heterosexuals that long term commitments between men cannot last. This is a good point to make when we look at films such as 'Call Me By Your Name' and 'Brokeback Mountain' which I dislike intensely. On top of that, the two lovers come from opposite poles of the political spectrum, and I will give no spoilers about how this added problem works out. For some of the friends that surround them this a sort of sleeping with the enemy, and yes, there is humour in this as well. One of the lovers has a flatmate. The flatmate loves his sharing partner very strongly. The actor who plays him I found excellent. And to a certain extent I got a bit tired of why the sex between the two lovers failed despite their devotion to each other. But there are good things in this film and in my opinion it is well worth watching. It was clearly made on a shoestring, but then a lot of good films are. See it if you can. Made in 2006 it is still relevant.

Long Term Relationship (LTR) is so poorly written and flatly presented it makes the typically weak programming on the TV channel Logo look like Masterpiece Theatre.

LTR is supposed to be a comedy drama. The comedy consists of terrible one liners or sight gag montages. There's some frank joking about sexual incompatibility and discussion of supposedly insurmountable political differences but everything LTR attempts to address or make a joke about has been done before and much better.

The story is standard romantic comedy fluff with spikes of drama thrown in. The writing sounds like a college freshman's first script. Most of the characters are terrible clichés, the side characters in particular. There's a supposedly wise and sexy Asian female best friend of the main character, her husband who hangs out with gay guys but is utterly clueless about anything gay (Har!), a couple of mildly flaming constantly quipping gay guys, the professor, and Mary Ann. The last two aren't really in LTR but the side characters are as one dimensional as old TV sitcom characters. Except the acting in LTR isn't as good as the acting in a TV sitcom.

The two leads acting is competent (when they fall flat it's mainly due to the terrible writing) and their characters have some interesting aspects...Interesting enough that it makes you wonder what a better writer and director would have done with them.

The most notable thing about LTR (other than some pleasant but completely out of place piano music) is that the gay characters all have hair that looks as if they just rolled out of bed or possible cut it themselves. If believable hair was the goal it's LTR's one success. But the reason the hair is even noticed at all is that everything else about the film is so dull and obvious it makes the hair really stand out.

Not so bad, but that's about all that can be said for it.

There are some genuinely amusing moments in the movie, mostly supplied by the supporting cast, but at times both the comedy and the drama really stretch credulity and fall flat.

When Glenn asks Mary Margaret why she's drinking herbal tea instead of coffee, she smiles coyly and says she's in her first trimester. His reaction: "oh are you going back to school." Ha. Ha.

When Adam's parents come for a visit, Glenn is hesitant and nervous about spending the night with Adam while his parents are in the house, but then later in the night he comes out of the bedroom stark naked, walks past the bathroom and stands at the kitchen sink for a drink of water with Adam's father sitting a few feet away. Surprise. Then, when the father invites him to sit and talk, he stays naked sitting at the dining room table rather than quickly grabbing a pair of shorts or a bathrobe or even a tea towel, but we're supposed to be amused by him feeling awkward and uncomfortable because he's naked with his boyfriend's father.

These contrived, desperate attempts at humor along with some really lame miscommunications situations that lead to some thin but over-acted drama, unfortunately reduce what could have been a reasonably decent movie down to soap opera or second-rate sitcom level.

The supposed intensity of love between the two lead characters never really comes across so that their communications mix-ups and fumbling attempts at sex don't really raise much tension on the part of viewers for fear that their romance might flounder. Actually I was hoping Glenn would forget about Adam and realize that his friend & roommate Vincent, who had a long-standing crush on Glenn, was a far better, more attractive and lively catch.

The "happily ever after" wrap-up that encompassed most of the characters felt like it was tacked on at the end simply because the movie had gone on long enough and a resolution, no matter how fairytale-ish, was needed before the curtain came down on it all.

I sat through most of it, although towards the end I started jabbing at the fast-forward button. A different actor playing Adam might have made a big difference.