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Gwen Wynne on set with Tate Donovan and Adam Pascal Photo: courtesy of Global Digital Releasing

The story of two teenage girls growing up on Cape Cod and realising that their father is in a relationship with another man, Wild About Harry is a very personal story to its co-writer and director, Gwen Wynne, who based it on her own life. Starring Tate Donovan and Adam Pascal as the couple, with Danielle Savre and Skye McCole Bartusiak as the daughters, it has also been a labour of love, as she was up against a reluctant establishment when it was first made, and although it enjoyed success on the festival circuit (under the title American Primitive), it has taken over a decade to get a proper cinema release. When I meet up with Gwen, she tells me that the story began even earlier.

Danielle Savre and Skye McCole Bartusiak as the...

First screened in 2009 under the title American Primitive, this very personal family story, based on writer/director Gwen Wynne’s own life, seems innocent and heart-warming today but was seriously challenging in its time, and focuses on a period where the controversy it addresses was still more so. It follows sisters Madeline (Danielle Savre) and Daisy (Skye McCole Bartusiak) as they move into a new home on Cape Cod with their father, the titular Harry (Tate Donovan). Having lost their mother, they are deeply uncomfortable about the idea of him getting into a new romantic relationship, and spend their time fending off would-be matchmakers, but life grows much more complicated when Madeline realises that in fact her father has already found a new love – his business partner, Mr Gibbs (Adam Pascal).

The year is 1973, and although Massachusetts society has reached a point where most people politely look the other way.

Year: 2008

Directors: Gwen Wynne

Writers: Gwen Wynne & Mary Beth Fielder

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: quietearth

Rating: 3 out of 10

Setting the tone for my first film of the day were the kind of people that give Christians a bad name. You know, the ones who stand on the corner holding big signs, condescending and screaming about going to hell complete with no homo shirts. And then hilarity ensued when a guy showed up wearing a dress, red paint, horns and with a sign that said "God loves gays". Yeah, I got pictures. This leads me into American Primitive, a gay-themed feel good film which started off with great potential, then quickly deteriorated into infantile and derivative crap. I didn't come to the fest to watch Disney moral tales, I came to watch film.

Taking a cue from the eracism movement.. wait, scratch that. Stealing the entire formula from the eracism movement,...