The story is simple. Young Jonathan spends his days taking care of his cancer sick father while he is not working on the farm His aunt helps out on the farm but the brother-sister have some sort of commotion and the sister never meets her dying brother. With the time spent working the farm and negotiating delicate family affairs, Jonathan has little time for himself. With the arrival of a female caretaker for the father, Jonathan gets some love and attention, but one thing he craves for is to know details about his mother, a topic that his father always refuses to talk about. Arrival of an old friend Ron changes things. HIs sudden arrival and penchant to take care of father leads to opening up of family secrets. Turns out Ron an the father used to be lovers, but somehow/somewhere the father married a woman but couldn't keep up. When Jonathan was young, the mother got sick and he left her all alone who later committed suicide. Jonathan is not as pissed about the father being gay as he is about how things ended for this mother. Jonathan is now on a new level of hurt, anger and pain. As the father's ending days are nearer, the sister finally makes amends too and everyone comes together to bury the father. Jonathan finally may have an opportunity to do something for himself.
Delicately, sensitively done, with subtle and engaging acting, Jonathan is upsetting but not too grim. Films like this about father -son relationship with gay twist are not many out there. The film is beautifully and aesthetically shot in the heartlands with beautiful greenery all around. The first half of the film explores the lead actors chiseled torso and killer cheekbones for maximum homoerotic hotness, never missing a chance to have him pull off his tight T-shirt, go skinny-dipping in sun-dappled woodland glades or have al fresco sex on the back of a pick-up truck. As audience you wish his was the gay character in the film. The man is hot! Oh well!! But at least the father gets an opportunity to finally be true to himself and to his son. The son's reaction in the taste of homophobia was likely more from surprise rather than disgust (at least thats what I felt). All Jonathan ever wanted was to know about his mother and he somehow feels cheated a lot when one by one the layers of secrets about his father are revealed. Thankfully he forgets his father and in an emotional hug also sort of accepts his lover. But it's time to move on for everyone. And hopefully Jonathan will find love with the nurse, who was there for him all along. On the flip side, the film can get slow sometimes and uneven when it gets too focused on the beauty of it all. Regardless, a decent watch. (6/10)
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