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Beautiful Thing
Beautiful Thing |
 Based on Jonathan
Harvey’s play of the same name the film, Beautiful
Thing is a delightful work. The basic story is simple,
boy meets boy, falls in love, cut to dance routine in the
middle of a South London (Thamesmead)
council estate! Well, something like that.In the opening sequence we see the mother of one of the lovers, an independent, some might say slightly common woman, by the name of Sandra (Linda Henry). She’s making her way home from the supermarket, complete with trolley and upbeat classic pop music. This is definitely the beginning of a British film, no other nationality has attained this level of understated camp. Sandra’s son, Jamie (Glen Berry) is having trouble at school, he hates games, is teased by the some of the other boys, and disappointed by the participation in this teasing of his friend and next door neighbor Ste’ (Scott Neal). Ste’ has problems of his own, both his father and brother take out their frustrations on him, expecting him to wait on them and beating him when he falls short of what they unreasonably demand.
The voyage of sexual discovery and the love that develops from it makes the film well worth seeing. Gritty realism is there, but never overshadows the camp, fun side of the story. Needless to say, as with so many British films, the straight characters are far more camp than the queens! Most of the actors contained within this celluloid package are relatively unknown, the main exception to this being "Olive" from "On the Buses"! The end scene is one of the best I’ve seen for a long time. I don’t want to give too much away, so all I’ll say is go and see it. Buy the video, get a box of kleenex, a pizza and some chocolates.. it’s one of those. If you really want to get into the mood, buy the sound track. |
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Queer Street Welcomes
Visitor No
(since July 17th, 1996)
© John Roulston-Bates, 1996.
During the
relatively short period of time covered by the film Jamie
and Ste’ discover each other and face up to their
homosexuality. Interupted by the "right-on"
advice from Sandra’s drip of a boyfriend (Ben
Daniels) and the outbursts of a