Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

denpub I should have remembered that a movie which opens with a scene from Romeo and Juliet is not going to leave me feeling light and happy. Holding the Man lived up to the expectation.In the sphere of tragedy amidst love I choose to not watch or ready anymore. Too many people I've loved are now dead. I am now in the green room so to speak, although I hope my call to my final performance is years away. Nevertheless I my mind now includes the deceased names of people I've loved or at least liked but are no longer here in bodily form.Watching Holding the Man did not lighten that load any. Hell, it may have added some weight.That is what is damnable about this movie. It does not let up. It's trajectory of love finding its own level is frustrating at times but seems to be clear. Cupids arrow is direct and the love between these boys is direct. Parents get in the way but they find their way. That's great and leads me to think this will be a movie with a happy ending.Then the scene. Our first introduction to AIDS in the movie suddenly shifts the direction of what could have been a pleasant train ride. The train hit a switch which sends the train, John and Tim and us in a very different direction. A direction I wish it did not go.Do I sound like Debbie Downer? Let's just say that the movie is so well done that it carried me through several emotions (including the "Don't do that, you'll be discovered" sort of emotion). Then it rides into the tragedy that AIDS through into our lives. The inevitable, unfair, unjust crime of nature against humanity.Include the awful scene of John's memorial service where Tim sits in a row with everyone else, and where the priest expresses gratitude to Tim and another friend for being with John during his last few months.I could not help but want to stand in that church and scream at the priest, "F#% liar!" I really wish someone did. But that apparently did not happen.It did make me realize that religions such as Catholicism are still babies where the real world is concerned. As an institution its leadership are adults who refuse to grow up and deal with reality. Not to neglect when religious groups stand against evil in the world. But where sexuality is concerned so many religious remain children. They are incompetent to dealing with matters of sexuality.Don't know if or when I can watch this film again. It is just too painful to know that such beautiful, Heavenly blessed love between two boys who grow into men, who still love each other in ways that religious folks often can only fantasize about, were removed from this life so quickly and so easily.A beautiful, lovely movie. There were times when I was wondering where it was going. The length is a bit much. But for excellent story telling, using the power of film this movie deserves a rating of 10.

fshardlow I actually watched this film about 2 months ago, but I still remember it vividly. Reading the book in a week after watching the movie also ensured that my life for the next month was going to be a roller-coaster of emotions. This movie will make you cry, a lot!The thing I adore about Holding the man is how Corr and Stott played their characters so well and fittingly to the real Tim and John in the book- it makes the film as a whole so much more engaging and heart-breaking. The movie's actual love story context is SO much more than just a love story. From protesting homophobia to harrowing encounters with disease and how it can effect a relationship, Holding The Man features so much that by the end of the movie, you will feel like you've gone through something... beautifully tragic. I honestly felt depressed for a solid 2 weeks after watching this film. This is perhaps a reason why I should give this movie a 9 star rating instead of 10, but I just can't! Months on from watching the film, John and Tim do still occasionally crop into my mind; but not in a sad, melancholy way, but in a peaceful way. The film made me care for these men I've never met. Something no other film apart from Brokeback Mountain made me do.I recommend this movie so highly if you love an epic love story that actually is so much more than that. It's beautiful and happy and exciting and sad and horrible all in one! I love it so much.

larapha Perhaps the good felling I felt when watching Holding The Man is the intense acting of Ryan Corr. He gives the film such a radiance that not even the dark events of AIDS can destroy. It's because of him I would rate the film so high. Not that the other actors are bad. It's simple because we don't feel bad during the screening; we simply accept the facts with a painful smile. Corr is so good in portraying an immensely lovable person we assume the facts as they are. The AIDS crisis won't destroy love, it simply turn it more intense. As we move back and forward through the film, we go on learning the power of love. The film doesn't tell us what the characters do for a living, but we understand they have very little, as when they show the parting of the belongings of the one who is dying, but that doesn't matter. They are full of life in that environment of death at stake. It isn't properly the story that holds us on, but Tim's character that never leaves a moment of sorrow. I'd highly recommend it, if only for showing that AIDS isn't the worst. The worst is lack of love, and that abounds in the whole movie.

phunghongphuong In fact, it's a tragedy, especially when Timothy cried and told his mum it was like he had killed the man that he loved. However, I still feel a bit of sweetness. They had 15 years to live together, savoured all tastes of love, it's enough, isn't it? After all, who infected first is not the most important thing because they loved each other, till they died. Actors, and actresses as well, are so amazing. If Ryan and Craig make me feel a strong love, Camillla and Kerry show me mothers' love for their sons regardless of their situation. I don't like the fact that two in three LGBT film I saw end up with AIDS, but I always think that AIDS is not a problem, the way we face it is a problem. And the way Timothy and John faced AIDS together is really really touching. They fell in love when two of them were young, and even if they cannot see their ageing, Timothy stood by John when John died. There are three scenes I like the best, it is when John told his father he was not ashamed (because of his disease), it is when John wanted to sleep with Timothy the last time, and it is when Timothy softly told John he was here so that John could pass away with serenity because John had promised that he could not go without Tim at his side. I love this film!