Big Eden
I'm well overdue to post something here and I realised I'd forgotten all about it lately! I really must get onto it and post more often after watching movies!
'Big Eden' is a wonderful story. It's about a gay man, Henry (Ayre Gross), who is an artist in New York; he returns to his home town, Big Eden, when his grandfather becomes ill. He runs into his best friend, Dean (Tim DeKay), from high school there; someone he had a major crush on back then, but nothing ever happened between them and the friend has since moved away, married and had kids. Now he's divorced and back in town with kids in tow, and our hero has to deal with his own unresolved feelings as well as Dean's issues. In the meantime, the local store-owner, a painfully shy NA man, Pike (Eric Schweig), has his own crush on Henry, and learns to cook to do something nice for him and his grandfather without expecting anything other than to admire him from afar.
What I loved about this movie was the gorgeous acceptance of the small town community. Not a one of them showed the least bit of homophobia towards these guys when they knew. Pike has a bunch of guys hanging out at his store every day (why was never made clear, but they were great!) and they become completely encouraging and helpful when they find out about his cooking for Henry (who doesn't realise the food is coming from him until the end). Even the other peripheral characters are great! The woman who was cooking for Henry originally, Widow Thayer, even switches from parading available women for Henry to date to gay guys once she is told! Henry's grandpa too is something else. He is calmly encouraging and loving when Henry finally tells him he's gay, although he clearly knew it already, and he's wonderful with Pike too.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the place, the wonderful characters and the simplicity of this whole film. You come to expect a whole lot of disapproval from the small town people in this type of film, but this just did not have that at all; it was beautiful!
'Big Eden' is a wonderful story. It's about a gay man, Henry (Ayre Gross), who is an artist in New York; he returns to his home town, Big Eden, when his grandfather becomes ill. He runs into his best friend, Dean (Tim DeKay), from high school there; someone he had a major crush on back then, but nothing ever happened between them and the friend has since moved away, married and had kids. Now he's divorced and back in town with kids in tow, and our hero has to deal with his own unresolved feelings as well as Dean's issues. In the meantime, the local store-owner, a painfully shy NA man, Pike (Eric Schweig), has his own crush on Henry, and learns to cook to do something nice for him and his grandfather without expecting anything other than to admire him from afar.
What I loved about this movie was the gorgeous acceptance of the small town community. Not a one of them showed the least bit of homophobia towards these guys when they knew. Pike has a bunch of guys hanging out at his store every day (why was never made clear, but they were great!) and they become completely encouraging and helpful when they find out about his cooking for Henry (who doesn't realise the food is coming from him until the end). Even the other peripheral characters are great! The woman who was cooking for Henry originally, Widow Thayer, even switches from parading available women for Henry to date to gay guys once she is told! Henry's grandpa too is something else. He is calmly encouraging and loving when Henry finally tells him he's gay, although he clearly knew it already, and he's wonderful with Pike too.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the place, the wonderful characters and the simplicity of this whole film. You come to expect a whole lot of disapproval from the small town people in this type of film, but this just did not have that at all; it was beautiful!