This is a truly heartbreaking film about how a group of friends is affected by the onset of AIDS. It takes us from the belief that AIDS is a "gay cancer" to present day (meaning early 90s), when gay activism for increased research is becoming common. This film will anger you at the fact that Reagan denied the existence of AIDS for so long, refusing to even mention it, and that that omission may have furthered the spread of this disease.
This is a brave film, one that doesn't flinch from eroticizing the relationships or from the horrors of dying from AIDS. ***Spoiler***Watch in particular for the almost wordless scene in which Bruce Davison (rightly nominated for an Oscar) sits by the bedside of his dying companion.
The cast is nearly pitch-perfect, including Campbell Scott, whose own relationships with his lover and friends are challenged by his own fear and misunderstanding of AIDS. The scene where he visits one of his friends in the hospital but is afraid to use his friend's bathroom speaks volumes about the misperceptions of AIDS in the 1980s.
The movie ends with an epilogue that has been criticized as too hopeful, almost tacked on. I would disagree with that. The ending doesn't minimize what came before it, but holds out hope that with activism and attention to and funding for research, a solution may yet be found.
This is a brave film, one that doesn't flinch from eroticizing the relationships or from the horrors of dying from AIDS. ***Spoiler***Watch in particular for the almost wordless scene in which Bruce Davison (rightly nominated for an Oscar) sits by the bedside of his dying companion.
The cast is nearly pitch-perfect, including Campbell Scott, whose own relationships with his lover and friends are challenged by his own fear and misunderstanding of AIDS. The scene where he visits one of his friends in the hospital but is afraid to use his friend's bathroom speaks volumes about the misperceptions of AIDS in the 1980s.
The movie ends with an epilogue that has been criticized as too hopeful, almost tacked on. I would disagree with that. The ending doesn't minimize what came before it, but holds out hope that with activism and attention to and funding for research, a solution may yet be found.