An Average Weekend

Last year, the critical darling of the SXSW Film Festival was a low budget British film called Weekend. Several entertainment websites I read regularly touted it as amazing, and it accrued a sky-high 94% rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Weekend unfolds in that space of time, and revolves around a young man whose evening hookup at a gay bar may or may not be leading into a more serious long-term relationship. The film is ultimately a talking head piece in a very modest and limited setting, but it is a vehicle for discussion of gay relationships.

But the movie somehow comes off both novel and cliché at the same time. There are countless romance films about one person looking for a deeper relationship while the other person is resisting the very idea of relationships at every turn. There are countless romance films adorned with clever dialogue dissecting the different things that two people want in a relationship. In rough shape, you've seen this movie dozens of times before.

And yet, the dimension of it involving a gay couple does transform the story somewhat. Beyond the expected scenes where the characters discuss the relationship, there are scenes where they debate the context of a gay relationship in society at large. They have differing thoughts on the matter, both coloring their view of relationships beyond theirs specifically. That's a dimension the average romance doesn't have to tackle.

But the film is also ultimately not actually very romantic. The nearest comparison I think I could make would be to the indie film Before Sunrise, which does a far better job at blending probing dialogue with budding love. Both lead actors, Tom Cullen and Chris New, commit well to their roles and their characters' points of view, but the two don't entirely pop as a screen couple.

There might be some value here in prompting a discussion, but I think a film (or any other form of entertainment) that's primarily didactic should be more subtly so. I'd call Weekend a middle of the road C. It may be that the critics were singing its praises simply because there aren't that many gay love stories out there. That may be true, but I'll look forward to the day when there are more, and we get a better one.