/The latter part of my comment might almost be construed as preaching, but belonging in a risk-group can't leave me emotionally unaffected. I don't think I should feel apologetic about it.
This is one of those films that I would always prefer watching alone or in the company of someone very close.
While to some, Mira Nair's directing and the flow of the story is irritatingly slow; Instead, I think that is actually the idea: It's not about expecting to have a quickie (in whichever platonic sense) from this - The film's slowness does not impede it, but works as a means to absorb the viewer into the story, its scene, its look and feel.
Re-telling the story in my comment might be overdone, considering the fact that some have done it here before me anyways and through the course of time, will probably not be the last ones to do this.
Of course the film is about AIDS back in the 1980's, but it's really almost a documentary reminder of what the disease is actually about - in a world where some people, especially the youth, have not begun considering that they might as well be affected by this.
It's beginning to be sad once the mainstream media narrows (or has already narrowed) its attention span towards this just because the condition is 'less of a pain' or that its status has been degraded to 'chronic'... "Ignorance is a bliss," or what?
The film just shows through its characters that the persons who died of HIV/AIDS, were real and they were not some poor people far away in some distant country. They were the human embodiment of different personalities and types we all can see around us, whom we can well relate to. AIDS (among other sexually transmitted diseases) is one of the more serious ones that could be caught in the road of pursuing [physical] pleasure. We shouldn't stop being careful about it.
By the way, "My Own Country" is also 'one of those' films that I caught watching on Hallmark back when there was cable at where I live.
