Food of Love

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BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> Food of Love</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 25 WIDTH="588"><div> êê<FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#CC9900" FACE="Arial" >1/2</FONT></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 23 WIDTH="588"><div> <A HREF="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Reviewed by Lee Shoquist</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Screen writing ambition can be a blessing or a curse, depending upon who's holding the pen.  </div> <bR> <div> <I>Food of Love</I>, based on the novel <I>The Page Turner</I> by David Leavitt, is an overwritten, gay coming of age story, infused with good acting, handsome cinematography and a some delicately observed insights on growing up.  The film begins with flair and promise, but ends up muddled and unable to connect the many characters and themes into a coherent and meaningful whole.  </div> <bR> <div> Set in San Francisco, Paul Porterfield (Kevin Bishop) is a handsome and talented musical student who takes a one-time gig as a "well-dressed page-turner" for his world-famous classical pianist idol, Richard Kennington (Paul Rhys).  </div> <bR> <div> When his father abruptly walks out on his dithering mother, Pamela (Juliet Stevenson), the two take an impromptu vacation in Barcelona, where Paul and Kennington meet again, this time embarking on a short-lived love affair.  </div> <bR> <div> When the affair ends badly, Paul returns to the states to study music at Julliard, Pamela returns to the uncertainty of being single and Richard flees the emotional implications for the distractions of a European tour.  </div> <bR> <div> But after a much-later chance meeting in New York with Joseph Mansourian (Allan Corduner), Kennington's manager and long-time partner, Paul once again becomes entangled in their lives and Pamela begins to realize her son's sexuality while grappling with her own sense of boredom and loneliness.  </div> <bR> <div> Written and directed by Ventura Pons, working in English for the first time, the opening half of <I>Food of Love</I> is often handsome and witty, with an upscale, picturesque attention given to the enchanting Barcelona locations, and a nice camaraderie between mother and son. A scene of seduction gets the absurdity of such an act just right, with a very appealing and open-faced performance from baby-faced Bishop.  There's also some pointed high comedy, mostly arising from Stevenson's exaggerated and brittle flighty American in Europe routine.   </div> <bR> <div> But after the Barcelona trip ends and the film flashes forward in time, its focus becomes muddy, the characters are disconnected and the brunt of the film left to be carried on Paul's shoulders. Unfortunately, Paul then becomes an increasingly vague and questionable character during these stretches, and his decisions regarding promiscuity, family and career sort of careen in directions that don't add up to much.  It's never clear to us exactly what he wants, and that is the principal problem with <I>Food of Love; </I>of love's lack of narrative focus.  </div> <bR> <div> I realize that being unfocused may be certain reality for most college freshmen attending first year studies in a big and liberating city, as they grapple with issues of sexuality, identity and career. But being unfocused doesn't usually make for good drama, and whatever energy the setup of <I>Food of Love</I> effectively mounts is somewhat dissipated in its latter half, as if an unsure writer didn't probe the real issues at hand.  </div> <bR> <div> Once the entertaining set-up is complete, the filmmakers haven't much idea where to take their multiple plot strands.  The film, ultimately, ends up feeling unsatisfying or somewhat lighter than it should, doing justice to none of its several plot threads.  The sum of the parts if much more gratifying than the patchwork whole they compose.  </div> <bR> <div> That <I>Food of Love</I> is made so competently adds to the frustration, with good actors, comic zest and some truth about first love, coming out, parental reconciliation and dashed artistic aspirations.  But the extended agenda proves to be daunting and the film devolves into a rather easily resolved drama that scratches the surface of many interesting dimensions but fails to go much deeper.  </div> <bR> <div> Incidentally, throughout the film my mind kept wandering to an uncomfortable subtext that is never addressed, which is why an attractive, charismatic and talented young man like Paul would be so consistently interested in older, rather unattractive men.  I can understand his hero-worship of the moderately handsome and much more world-weary Kennington, his musical ideal and first love. But by the time he's bedded his third much older, opportunistic, less attractive father-like character, I kept wondering just where all the nice, young gay guys in Manhattan were hiding, or rather why he kept avoiding them.  </div> <bR> <div> There are also some potentially rich themes about the tragedy of divorce, and the divisions it creates in a household between parents and children.  There are some particularly effective late scenes between Stevenson and Bishop, centering on the downplayed discovery of his homosexuality that feel tense and authentic.   </div> <bR> <div> Also confusing is that after the film moves forward in time, a great anger seems to have developed in Paul, directed toward his mother.  We're never sure of its origin, as Pamela is really a harmless busybody and apparently a pretty responsible and likable mom.   We're left to assume that there may be some pent-up resentment about the divorce, or some lingering scar tissue from his recent heartbreak, that has turned him into a spiteful, evasive person who turns to promiscuity and away from mom.    </div> <bR> <div> Along the way, there are some intelligent scenes with the great British actress Geraldine McEwan as a brutally honest piano tutor who helps Paul re-adjust his professional expectations with his level of talent.  </div> <bR> <div> I kept wishing the film would re-adjust its focus to its most interesting character, Pamela.  Spending most of her screen time in a sort of well-meaning, good-hearted dither, Juliet Stevenson (doing an decent American accent), raises the level of viewer interest each time she appears. Consider, for example, the scene where Pamela has misread Kennington's hospitable friendship and attempts an embarrassing seduction.  Though the scene is played for light comedy, her range of emotions inside it is really quite amazing, most coming from the actress rather than the character as written.  And witness her comic frustration later in the film as she attempts to come to grips with her son's sexuality by attending an off-center PFLAG-type meeting.   Sadly, <I>Food of Love</I> really doesn't give her enough to do, and that's true of its entire cast.  </div> <bR> <div> On a technical level, the film has the unmistakable mark of quality and attention. The warm, lush cinematography is inviting and the score is effective. It's well paced, more than competently directed, and well acted by its entire cast.  </div> <bR> <div> I wish that <I>Food of Love</I> was a more successful film <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Symbol" >-</FONT> more dramatic, deeper or contained richer truths. At times, it's effective and entertaining.  But as it stands, it's a decent piece of entertainment that doesn't go quite far enough with the provocative issues and themes at its core.  </div> <div> A very near miss.  </div> <div>  </div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="592" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div>  112 Minutes</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div> Rated R</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="588"><div>  Sexual situations, nudity, profanity</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="621" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="617"><div> <B>Lee Shoquist © 2002</B></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="617"><div> <A HREF="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:leeshoquist@aol.com"><U><U>Leeshoquist.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>