NOVEMBER 22, 1996 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

EVENINGS OUT

Story of two boys' love is buoyant, despite rough setting

Beautiful Thing

Directed by Hettie Macdonald Sony Pictures Classics

Cedar-Lee Theater, Cleveland New Neon Theater, Dayton, Dec. 13 Drexel East, Columbus, Dec. 13

Reviewed by Bob Boone

The first film for both writer Jonathan Harvey and director Hettie Macdonald, Beautiful Thing is a dreamy portrait of falling in love.

From the dull roughness of one of London's sprawling cement housing tenements and from the unease of their own fractured families, two high school boys create a touching relationship that offers them their only moments of freedom and happiness.

Taunted and bullied about at school, Jamie (Glen Berry)

spends much of his time skipping school, watching old movies

holic father and drug-dealing older brother. The two high school boys are forced to share Jamie's bed in the cramped apartment, and their awkward crush blossoms into an initially tenuous love.

With her brassy insults as a running synopsis of the tensions and the issues within the housing complex, Leah (Tameka Empson) is a sixteen-year-old high school drop-out who uses a mixture of alcohol, drugs, and Mamas and the Papas songs to ease her angry boredom. Leah finds in the lyrics of Mama Cass the sanctuary that all of the characters are seeking.

In contrast to the brazen Leah is Sandra's boyfriend Tony (Ben Daniels), whose laid-

"When you've got a dull, boring life and something

back manner is the refuge Sandra craves until she can make her dreams come true. As well as hav-

comes along that gives you ing a few of the film's

a moment of happiness, you cling onto it. That's what all those characters are looking for."

on television, and trading smart-aleck remarks with his mother, Sandra (Linda Henry). For her part, Sandra dreams of ascending from her barmaid job to run her own pub in the English countryside. They are a loving mother and son, but frequently spurred to bickering by the mutually unacknowledged secret of Jamie's being gay and their common desires for escape.

Lives change when Sandra offers temporary refuge to Jamie's classmate and their next door neighbor, Ste (Scott Neal), who is fleeing from the physical abuse of his alco-

funniest lines,

Daniels has a clear voice that offers a respite among the sometimes difficult accents of the other actors.

With its roots as a

play on the London stage, Beautiful Thing is filled with clever dialogue and concise scenes (such as the familiar moment as Jamie nervously shop-lifts a gay magazine so as not to be confronted by the woman at the register) to convey the complexity of feelings that surround coming out and falling in love. Deliberately set in a tenement with scarce privacy, the film swiftly moves its characters through their emotional stages of fear, shock, acceptance, and more, but in a delightful manner which encourages the audience's willing suspension of disbelief.

Glen Berry and Scott Neal

Despite the film's stark environment and the unhappy backgrounds of its main characters, Beautiful Thing exudes a buoyant atmosphere. It is the very fact that love does come into such an atmosphere that makes the mood so joyful. As author Jonathan Harvey has explained, "When you've got a dull, boring life and something comes along that gives you a moment of happiness, you cling onto it. That's what all those characters in the play are looking for-some beautiful thing to cling on to. All those characters

PAUL CHEDLOW

have that beautiful thing some point in the play, and that's why it's so rosy."

Solid and playful performances by all the actors support well-developed characters, and the bashful smiles and serious gazes that pass between actors Berry and Neal assure us that their characters are in love. Following the boys' romantic frolic in the woods of a misty park and the dreamlike final sequence, one can only leave the movie theater thinking of love and wondering where to dig up some old Mamas and Papas albums. ✔

BACK!

BY POPULAR DEMAND WITH AN ALL NEW SHOW & AMAZING SPECIAL EFFECTS

Fantasy

Spectacular

A Musical Extravaganza!

Give Thanks At The Carousel

THE CITY OF CLEVELAND

Acknowledges December 1, 1996 as World AIDS Day

AROUSELS

DINNER THEATRE..

Waterloo Road • Akron OH 44306

ONE WORLD, ONE HOPE CARING GLOBALLY, ACTING LOCALLY

For information on HIV/AIDS prevention and services call the Cleveland Department of Public Health at (216)

664TAIDS.

BICORTERBIAL

CLEVELAND

1994 ...

Michael R. White, Mayor

Robert O. Staib, Director of Public Health