In from the Side

WTF I was hoping that mark and warren would ended up together😥😥😭😭😭 pls make a season 2 where they ended up together I love this movie omggggggggggg

For a film well over two hours long would you expect it to cover a great deal of ground. The trouble is, the film doesn't use its time wisely. It is slow and ponderous, with many scenes, especially on the rugby field, pointless and adding little or nothing to the narrative. But the film's main weakness for me, is that it fails to explain why the relationship between the two main leads develops as it does. I get the lustful eye contact across the room and the subsequent hot sex, but then it becomes increasingly mystifying as they both act like love struck but unsure eighteen years olds, instead of mature grown up men. The development of their relationship is supposed to be determined by their existing relationships with respective partners. But those relationships are not even properly described, so it becomes very difficult to understand many of their actions in any meaningful context. The rugby club members, mainly one dimensional characterisations, appear to be a rather prudish bunch for a group of gay men. The film seems to have an obsession with "cheating" on monogamous relationships (even though one of them claims to be in an open relationship). It feels more like a Victorian moral tale than a genuine portrayal of gay men, especially as everyone ends up unhappily and riddled with guilt. It reminded me of the film Brief Encounter in its portrayal of a doomed affair by two partnered people, riddled with guilt about having a good time with each, whilst putting up with unsatisfactory partnerships just because that was the "right thing to do". In From the Side has the same moral code as Brief Encounters. It is as if nothing has changed in the last eighty years. In From the Side is not a liberated or liberating film. It is a throwback to another time when people were expected to conform to the status quo, whether it was right for them or not.

I'm giving this four stars as it was shot beautifully but that's about it. The script is a mess and its portrayal of gay relationships and gay men is perplexing. I would've liked to see the story focus more on the rugby side of things rather than the unreal histrionics of the characters and their "relationships". There was little to no exposition about how they all came to rugby or how they got involved with their partners. It just didn't grab me on an emotional level and, by the end, we were mocking the characters for their inane choices and reactions. It's too bad: it was obvious there was considerable money spent on the filiming but they should've focused more of the budget on making major script revisions and the director should've been working with the actors to pull back their performances from the over-the-top styles most of them were employing.

There are some opinions here that a romance story between two goodlooking, young, masculine gay men isn't worth telling. Not sure why. Romantic yearning crosses all demographics, and there will be plenty of viewers who will relate to this film. The characters and situations were realistic. I felt saddened, especially for Warren, that a relationship that started out with promise can ultimately go unfulfilled. Something tells me he and Mark were made for each other had things gone differently. But most of us know you can't rekindle the past and erase its mistakes. I need to add more words to the review, so I'll mention that some dialog was hard to understand to my American-English ears.

This could have been a great film - unfortunately it was too long and wallowed in its own YouTube style filler music in far too many scenes. The core actors did a reasonable job, but the acting on the periphery was really laboured and felt amateurish - perhaps the script could have been sharper, I would say that this was understandable due to the budget, but most of the production quality was otherwise good. Having watched films like Shank (excellent and from a rooky production crew) and Free Fall, this film is no where near as good. If I had watched it as part of my Prime membership It would not be sooo bad - but as it cost £9.99 to stream it felt a bit steep all considered. There are 10s of better gay movies out there to watch before this one. Unless you have loads of time on your hands perhaps try them first.