Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

yduric I must admit, to my great shame, that I was also convinced by this crap upon first viewing: I have to admit, like other viewers pointed it out, that it is nicely filmed, that the complexities and subtleties of the love triangle formed by Jonathan, Carrie and Shane, the main characters of the movie, are well-rendered, and that it plays well with the ambiguity about Shane, one of the two male characters of the film, who may unconsciously harbour the same feelings that Jonathan, the other male character, consciously has for him.Everything plays well for almost the entire duration of the movie, until we arrive at a disgusting moment, that all of a sudden struck me after a second viewing and totally ruins the movie: it is the moment when Jonathan is studying at night with Shane lying drunk on the bed and the latter, (it is a little bit hard to describe an obscene act with polite words, but since foul language is prohibited if you want to write a review on IMDb..) literally FORCES HIS WAY INTO HIM, in other words, RAPES HIM: a proof is that Jonathan's scream at this moment is definitely not a scream of pleasure, but a scream of pain. And what stuns me the most is that the following morning, they so ridiculously express their so-called 'feelings' on the beach, as if nothing had happened. What is all the more disgusting is that if Shane had done the same to Carrie, the female character, everyone would have yelled 'RAPE!', but here, it seems to be perfectly admitted, and the only conclusion that can be drawn is that it is a filthy homophobic message, that is to say: 'Oh, this is not surprising, since they are engaged in a homosexual act, it happens all the time, all of them are more or less rapists!' However, as far as I know, RAPE id a CRIME in the vast majority of the countries of this world, liberal or conservative.So, fundamentally, this crap of a movie, and the fact that it was so well-praised, is only the not-so surprising reflection of the fact that, contrarily to what the politically correct speech try to brainwash us with, in recent years, homophobia has become more and more pervasive and is increasing.Thsi is the reason why, after having initially given a 10 to this crap, I changed it, and gave it a 1. which I think is far more appropriate...

Suradit Great treatment of the complexities of relationships and the difficulty of making the transition from the youthful summer of life to the autumn of adulthood.At the superficial level, Jonathan is one of the best students in his class while Shane is a trouble-maker who has no friends. At the request of Shane's mother, their teacher orchestrates a bonding between Jonathan and Shane in the hopes of helping Shane. While both boys are reluctant, their friendship develops into something very important to them both, but not without costs.Carrie enters the picture when they are all older and coming to terms with their sexuality, but this leads to Jonathan & Carrie "discovering" an insurmountable obstacle to their relationship. Carrie is sympathetic and still cares about Jonathan. Nonetheless she then turns her romantic attention to Shane who does reciprocate her feelings, but both fear alienating Jonathan who Shane continues to love as a best friend. The chemistry between these three becomes an increasingly difficult mixture of love, resentment, respect, caring, jealousy and misunderstanding.They each want to maintain the innocent and platonic relationships formed during the summer of their youth, but their sexual maturity and natural desire to pair off in more intimate relationships makes the rite of passage a painful and, as far as the movie is concerned, an unresolved one.Very well done. The actors made their characters very believable and their plight was emotionally touching & moving.

jm10701 The only consistently outstanding thing about Eternal Summer is the photography. It's gorgeous. There are times when the way the camera moves through a scene is so fascinating, so evocative and sensual, that I neither know nor care what the actors are doing - which is a good thing, because they're rarely doing anything worth watching.The girl and the boy who plays Shane are pretty good sometimes, and the boy who plays Jonathan is great in the very first scene, when he looks into the camera and smiles before leading us out the door and into the past - his only smile in the whole movie.The mostly piano score stays comfortably in the background except in crucial scenes, when it swells intrusively and annoyingly in its attempt to force us to be caught up in the drama we see, and succeeds only in detracting from it.The big sex scene is sweet enough, but it's about as believable as if Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford did one. Some straight actors can pull it off - better than many gay actors - but not these two.I like the slightly ambiguous ending, but the fact that the whole movie is a flashback means the first scene helps a lot in tying the end together. The story is unusual enough that it could have been interesting, and it actually is, sometimes, but not often enough to carry the movie.There's nothing new about a gay boy in love with his straight best friend, or about a girl who's in love with the gay but settles for the straight. What IS new is the marvelous extent to which this straight guy is willing to become whatever his friend needs him to be - without at all compromising his strong sense of himself - and with no resentment at all, no holding his nose while he does something that disgusts him, no hint of martyrdom - only love.That alone makes this movie - despite its many weaknesses and faults - very special. If there actually were even one such straight man on the face of the earth, this world would be a better place.(The DVD cover is misleading. There is no such scene in the movie, with the three of them lying entwined together in the sand, or anywhere else - not even in the deleted scenes.)

Gordon-11 This film is about the friendship and relationship of 2 schoolboys and a schoolgirl in rural Taiwan.This film is slow, but it is beautifully made. The characters are developed very well. The plot is touching and intense. The psychological turmoil of Jonathan is portrayed well through his expressions and his behaviour. The film successfully portrays teenage identity confusion, jealousy, passion and love. It is a beautiful portrayal of same sex feelings.Only one comment though, I think the director uses too much mirrors. I can think of at least five scenes that uses a mirror (and nothing else can be seen apart from the mirror) to reflect what is going on in the other side of the room. The technique can add depth and can offer great composition of the shot, but I think it really is overused in the movie.