Kept Boy

Director George Bamber and screenwriter David Ozanich have adopted Robert Rodi's popular 1996 book KEPT BOY, updated it a bit, gather a fine cast and the result is a well timed gender variation love story that plays quite well.

Dennis Racine (Jon Paul Phillips) is a handsome young boy-toy of much older interior designer/reality show star Farleigh Nock (Thure Riefenstein) who surrounds himself with beautiful things. Farleigh extracted Dennis from his first year of college to become a kept boy (and we soon discover that the houseboy Javi - Deosick Burney – had Dennis' assignment prior!). Dennis is nearing his 30th birthday and Farleigh shocks Dennis with the news that it is time for him to get a job! A new pool boy Jasper (Greg Audino) is hired and Dennis suspects he is a possible replacement. Armed with suspicion and need, Dennis plays to his ambition. Jasper has an uncle Peter (Charles Fathy), a successful painter in Cartagena, Colombia and Farleigh, Dennis, Javi, and Jasper fly there for a visit. Situations heat up in Cartagena and some surprising changes occur – changes that are both bittersweet and proof that love conquers all.

KEPT BOY addresses many issues in the gay community and with the quality of actors cast in the various parts (John-Michael Carlton, Toni Cohen, Vivian Lamolli, Ellen Karsten, Carrie Madsen, Tamara Zook, Skyler Bible and Scott Atkinson), the situations become credible and even touching. The film mixes humor, lust, relationships, ageism and dreams with a fine dose of polish.

There are some nice moments and interesting performers, but the STORY is where this film fails. Trying to create depth and meaning out of things that are superficial should never have been attempted.

This film also laughs off several serious situations and that seemed like lazy writing from someone hiding shame behind humor. The tale would have been stronger had it called out the sugar daddy character for what he is.

Author Andrew Holleran penned a line that would have been golden in this film: "Don't expect me to be your fountain of youth."

The universality of this story is that it happens to women, too. Unfortunately the filmmakers missed that connection and the possibility of making this story a commentary on the selfish desires of privileged men.

...for the proposing questions. Simple, real, precise. For the nice performances. For the atmosphere. Not great but nice. For a form of definition for the meaning of life. For the heigh of different ages. For the map of vulnerabilities. And for sketches of artificial universes and theirs borders. Nothing original. But useful for the traces of questions and for the reasonable manner to propose them.

This film tells the story of a man who is losing favour as the sugar son of a rich man.

The film is a bit different because it tells the story of a man with three different generations of sugar relationships. Rivalry, jealousy and sadness are conveyed quite well. However, I guess the film is not dramatic or stereotypic enough to make it fun and enjoyable. The film is fun, but could have been more fun.

Dennis lives with his sugar day that is real life TV type Farleigh who has more money than sense and likes to have his significant other not too far away. Dennis has grown used to the easy life and the trimmings of success but with his main actual achievement being 'looking smashing in athletic wear' as John Grant might say. Thing is time and tide wait for no man and after a life of lazy margheritas it is not going to be too long before age starts to show.

Then enter Jasper, he's hunky, he's sultry, he's Mexican and he is the new pool guy. But not for long – soon Farleigh has more than his interest piqued and all of a sudden Dennis has competition – big time.

Now this is one of those stories that plays the coincidence card a tad too many time but as its done so well you sort of forgive it. The actors are all really good especially Jon Paul Phillips as Dennis who really ought to get more gigs. The production is done well too and despite its indie background it comes across as a confident and grown up piece of film making – this is not one for those who want to be mired in bedroom action but is more character based and hence is one I can recommend to all fans of gay themed cinema