Get Real (1998)

Steve is a 17 year boy, still in school. He has long since decided he is gay but only meets men in the park for sex. When one of the people he meets in the park toilets turns out to be none other than the hunky head boy, Steve is unsure where he stands. However their relationship grows into lovers and they both balance the feelings brought around by secrecy and feeling like no one understands.

From the sparky opening and good sense of humour, I had expected this film would just be another in the line of Richard Curtis-lite style of British romantic comedies. Indeed it does have this feel to it throughout - it has some good songs on the soundtrack and much of it is funny in that bittersweet way that British rom-coms seem to have claimed as their own. However what made this such a good film is the fact that it is a lot more sensitive and moving than most of this genre ends up being. The plot may well drag a little at times, but it never really seems unrealistic or dull.

The characters are part of the reason it does so well. It is rare in the mainstream to see gay characters portrayed fairly and without caricature - HBO's 6 Feet Under is one of the rare ones, but this does as well. I wish that all those who hold up `Will & Grace' as a milestone in gays in the mainstream could all sit and see how much better it is when done like this! The dialogue is good and none of the characters are fake or pointless. Of course some react the way you expect them to, but the fact that they have been drawn well stops them being lazy - just broad. The film is weak in some pretty important areas however. The main one being the lack of relationship between Steven and John - I never saw them together and all they had in common is their sexuality.

The cast do pretty well with the characters, even if some of them are being held up by the good script. Silverstone is great in the lead - he gives a really low key performance that even extents to his `speech' scene - where he could have really hammed it up some. Gorton is not as good but does do sterling work. The support cast are mixed although all do their jobs ably enough.

Overall this is a great little film that will never get the same success as the Richard Curtis comedies from which it borrows a bit of it's style, however the script is really strong and it is quite unarming in how well it deals with the issues without cliché or lazy caricature of characters.