Irishchatter I have to tell ya, this movie might be romantic as you say but really it lacked a lot of stuff that I don't understand!The boy Nathan was abused by his father then was raped by his lovers friend? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. The father in the beginning seemed like an ordinary bloke and only became evil when Nathan didn't go to church. I read on the plot that he was evil. It seemed to me he was bipolar then an abusive dad. I honestly didn't see any beating or hitting in this movie. Like what are they talking about?With the friend, he seemed to me that he was extremely jealous of Nathan getting a bj from Roy. Like where did he come out of? It seemed too fast for me to look at a better reason why he came out of nowhere?! Seriously it was such a filthy scene. I think there shouldve been lines involved in this movie, this is the worst movie I've ever seen and which it gave me a headache!

Matthew H I thought this movie showed promise and had quite a high rating so i gave it a shot. I actually want my time back! Not to mention my innocence. I understand that not every story can be a happy one, but why would anyone want to tell this story? A novel adapted into a film and to be honest, it was a mess! The story seemed disjointed and random, the camping and ghost stories part was just random overload. The movie deals with extremely dark subject matter so to call this film a 'love story' is a major stretch. I felt so uneasy watching this film in the middle and final parts. The characters were so little developed and this was not helped by the weak acting and terrible dialog. This is the perfect example of a novel that should be left to the literary world and not to cinema. I've seen many depressing films in my life and somehow they lift you up or at least explain the intentions and justice is served or there is a silver lining. This film leaves you feeling empty and disturbed which i almost respect because in reality bad things happen to people and there is little happiness in certain situations. But to watch this film intentionally aware of what is going to happen.... you just wouldn't do it. It's a one time watch and never again.

hsture There are so many things wrong with this film it is hard to know where to begin, but I shall start with the poor excuse for a script, at first it was difficult to decide whether it was the acting that was bad or the script, and then after about half an hour I realised it was both. Persevering in the hope that it would improve, I proceeded to waste another hour watching this poor excuse for a film, the sad part is it had the potential to be good, if only the script had done something other than hint at the issues it was attempting to deal with, barely scratching the surface of what in reality is a very serious issue. The awkward acting (Stephen Bender) portraying an awkward, and mostly cringe worthy portrayal of a teen struggling with not only his sexuality but his horrendous home life, to be fair it isn't his fault though, the weak writing left him little to work with, and very little dialogue, other then the odd feeble response to a question, and fain glance here and there at his co-stars there really was not a lot he could do. The depth of characters were about as deep as that which you would find in an episode of the hills, by the end of the film, other than the shoddy, and sloppy scene depicting his father attempting to abuse him we knew nothing about these characters as individuals, much less how they came to have such an 'intense' relationship, how they went from riding the school bus with each other to pulling each others clothes off in a grave yard is a mystery I think even Sherlock himself would struggle to fathom, yet we were supposed to believe in this relationship and it's struggles and somehow the emotional turmoil he was going through at the same time. To say the ending was a disaster would be an understatement, four boys on a camping trip, find a scary old house...all seems pretty cliché right? but to add in a rape scene for shock value seemed, vulgar, pathetic and illustrated just how poor the writing of this movie was, the fact that once he was dead his eyes moved several times as his co star was supposed to be sat mourning his loss was almost laughable. My review may seem harsh but I think if you are going to make a movie about something on this subject, and do it so poorly, you are opening yourself up to criticism. The writers were obviously trying to build themselves up as your typical quirky, indie film, edgy and mysterious, the only mystery in the end being how the hell it got made in the first place. Weak, poorly written and poorly executed, an insult to those who have actually gone through anything like this.

Suradit Unfortunately, just before I watched this movie, I read a review here stating that the story was based on a "thin-as-paper, muddled plot." With that in mind and the somewhat awkward, uncomfortable interactions between the actors at the start, I almost gave it up. The timid, brittle interactions, however, were very true to the decidedly dysfunctional family of the main character rather than tentative acting.Yes, the plot may have been overly ambitious in all that it attempted to include. Some of what takes place was a bit formulaic and stereotypical, but the events were still integral to the story development and it felt totally realistic if not ground-breaking. There is, after all, a fair amount of shared common experience in the coming-of-age saga of most young gay men. In fact, many of us are drawn to films like this because reliving some of those common experiences, distressing as they may have been when we were young, now contribute to a comforting feeling of connection to others.The distant, confused, tender-brutal, hateful-loving relationship between father and son, I suspect, drove a great deal of this story although it wasn't the central focus. That tension and force was very effectively accomplished without belaboring the obvious.The movie has its rough edges as quite often happens when a complex plot is carried from book to movie. Still, I found it well worth watching.