TITLE: Beautiful Thing COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: U.K. DIRECTOR: Hettie MacDonald CAST: Glenn Barry, Scott Neal, Linda Henry, Tameka Empson   AVAILABLE ON VIDEO: Yes

"I won't put you out in the morning like an empty bottle!" -Sandra Gangel Once in a while, a story comes along that manages to capture the innocence of youth slowly coming to terms with sexuality. More rarely, comes a story that is able to do this with sensitivity balanced with levity. Beautiful Thing is such a long awaited event. This British film, based on the play by Johnathan Harvey, who also did the screen adaptation, is a study in coming to terms and coming out in the 90's, showing that facing our sexuality for the first time is still as difficult a difficult and traumatic event. Jamie Gangel is a South-London teenager who loves old movies, hates Phys Ed and tends to skip school to avoid the gym or the soccer field. He lives in a government project with his 'single' mom, Sandra, a bartender hoping to get a license for her own pub. Next door lives his friend, Ste (pron. STEE short for Stephen) who is frequently abused by his father and older brother. Leah is another neighbor, a black girl who has been expelled from school and passes her days lip-synching Mama Cass records. She's also a busy-body, gossip and rumor monger who relishes in spreading vindictive tales to create friction between her neighbors. On her way home from work one night, Sandra finds Ste sitting by the Thames, sobbing, and she knows he has suffered another beating at home, having heard these violent oubursts through the thin apartment walls before. She comforts him and brings him home, putting him up for the night with Jamie. Sharing a small twin bed 'top to toe' (remember doing that with visiting cousins and friends?) the boys talk for awhile and the casual innocent conversation, brief as it is, it's very revealing about the boys' feelings for one another. As the weeks pass, Ste spends more time avoiding his violent family by staying at Jamie's and the relationship slowly blooms, starting with Jamie's tender caring for Ste's bruises and abrasions from yet another beating. When Jamie first kisses Ste, it is an innocent surprise but not unexpected by the viewer or Ste. Sandra eventually finds out about Jamie, who has stolen away for a secret evening out with Ste at a local gay bar. Upon his arrival at home, she confronts her son. Her initial state is a very real shock and anger, but acquiesses into acceptance, mellowed by her love for the boy as she tells him, "I won't put you out in the morning like an empty bottle!" Through all of this, Leah is constantly interfering with the relationships as she torments the entire block with drunken, loud, late-night performances of her Mama Cass routines. Having seen Ste leaving Jamie's place early one morning, she threatens to tell the world, especially his father and brother. She also tells Sandra's boyfriend that Sandra hadn't lost a baby but had an abortion. She generally makes a nuisance of herself and is basically the comic relief. The boyfriend...well he's a throw-away character and serves no real purpose in the film anyway. I really liked this film. It is a simple love story. It is innocence and innocence lost. It is a family coming to terms with itself and its own reality and friends coming to terms with the love that is growing between them. There are no sex scenes, only the waking up in the morning. There is a beautiful love scene, exquisitely photographed as Jamie and Ste romp through a wooded area and share their first real passionate kiss after visiting the gay pub. The only real flaw is the ending. While it's a rather 'neat' ending, I found myself wanting more. I wanted to know that Ste gets away from his bashing father and brother; that he and Jamie manage to keep their love alive even though Jamie and his mother will be moving away; and, damn it, I wanted to know they live happily ever after! But that's part of the magic of movie-making. Left as it is at the end, we can at least assume they do! Beautiful Thing is a wonderful, light, heartwarming, sensitive film. Not perfect, but it is beautiful!

BestBoy's Rating: