Consenting Adult

As a gay teenager coming up when this movie came on for the first time it actually made the idea of coming out a bit easier! This movie though it only mentioned AIDS once was very well made and everything was done in good taste! I think the caste was superb with such heavy weights as Martin Sheen and Marlo Thomas and at that time Barry Tubb was a relative newcomer and the perfect choice to play Jeff he is a good looking actor and he helped prove that anyone can be gay and that it is not a sickness but a way of life! I wish someone would buy the rights to this movie and put it on Video or DVD. We need more movies like this that parents can watch with their gay children so that the coming out process will be easier on both!

Movie-of-the-week about a gay young man who comes out to his parents. Martin Sheen plays the father--frustrated, embarrassed and angry--who turns his son away, but mom Marlo Thomas reaches out to her boy with love and understanding. TV not tackling taboo territory, but taking baby steps (still); it's about as sexually frank as the glossy coming-out opus "Making Love" from 1982 (and with just a whiff of a mention of "that disease" that dare not speak its name). Writer John McGreevey, adapting Laura Z. Hobson's novel, keeps shifting the narrative back to the parents--ostensibly because Sheen and Thomas are the movie's stars. Naturally, the straight-laced couple would be shocked and confused by their son's revelation (that's only natural), but just whose story is this?

I saw this movie back in 1985 when it premiered on television. Marlo Thomas plays Tess Lynd a mother whose son announces that he is gay. Tess' husband is not accepting of the son and a battle ensues. Tess is torn between the love of her son and her husband. Marlo Thomas gives a great performance!! I was a bit shocked though, parts of this film are pretty risque for the time and television! I can remember vividly how the viewer almost was part of the sexual activity the son was having, but it was done tastefully. I recommend this film!

this movie is atrue example of a boy how had to come to realize he is gay and does not know how to deal with it. as we all have gone through this back in those days it was difficult for the whole family. but this movie gives us an insite of one parent coming to deal with the boys situation and the other who cannot.i saw this movie on TV here in Australia quite a few years ago and i still admire it and the wat it dealt with this situation. i give it 5 stars because when it was shown people in general could not deal with the fact their son or daughter were gay. still thought it was a disease or mental problem. i know i went through this and just left home and moved to a place where i was not know and eventually my family came to deal with it and all is OK now thanks charles ps. i am 70 years old now

A young man (Barry Tubb) comes out to his parents. The father (Martin Sheen) immediately rejects him, while his mother (Marlo Thomas) tries to accept him and get her husband to also.

Way ahead of its time (for TV). The man is allowed to have a handsome young lover and even has sex (not shown) without being punished! The acting is all good and the subject matter is handled extremely well.

The only bad part was how the parents (over)reacted. They acted like he had committed murder or something! Thomas' overreaction actually had me smirking a little. Also it's quite interesting to see Sheen playing a homophobe--in real life he's very accepting of gays. In fact he played one in an early 1970s TV movie ("That Certain Summer")which I've never seen.

Anyways this is a little dated (AIDS isn't mentioned) but still very worthwhile...especially for gay kids planning to come out.

Also Tubb is REALLY cute!!!!!