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Better Half

By Golu
Aah! The stab you feel when you see a wonderful story and idea and paper and see it blow up in execution, not just in one department but various aspects of it. I will talk about it more in details later but to give the credit due where it belongs, the story is pretty novel and had huge potential if this was in a capable director’s hands.

The story is about a gay couple Tony and Leo. Tony is a social worker who works with lower section of society (drug peddlers, convicts, hospitals, abused women etc.) and he is very passionate about his job and very dedicated. Leo, on the other hand is a financial advisor and is very much into career and money. They have been together for a while. In one of the many cases, once a woman leaves her stillborn baby in a hospital. While taking care of the kid, Tony gets really close to the baby Dylan. When Leo proposes marriage, he accepts but also asks if he would consider adopting Dylan. Leo is very reluctant because he has barely accepted the idea of marriage. Ultimately he gives into pressure. But because of gay adoption legalities involved in the system, Leo has to adopt baby as a single parent with Tony later applying for guardianship. Tony becomes a full time home maker while Leo is fully focussed on his job. But Tony’s old cases come to haunt him and he gets killed in a gun shot. Leo’s world is turned upside down because he was never ready to take care of baby. In fact, he wants to run away from the baby. But with support from his friends and Tony’s colleagues, he gets over the fear and finally accepts Dylan as his own son.

So clearly the story has enough potential, but where do I even begin with the flaws. The beginning is flawed. We see 4-5 different scenarios completely unrelated to each other before we can even figure out what’s going on. And the camera angles are so weird with completely focussing on head shots of the characters that it gets very distracting and flat and annoying. The photography is very uneven. The lead actors had potential but the director IMO didn’t do a good job of extracting performances from them. An independent film has its constraints and I do understand that but there is no excuse for bad timing and really poor editing. Talking of which, the film is pretty long and totally lacks professional creativity. The makers could have gone into the details of bureaucracy of adoption for gay parents but instead they focus on personal tussle between the couple. A welcome effort in terms of story but totally thumbs down for execution.

Watch it only if you don’t have anything else better to see or if you have money to use the same story and adopt it better. (4/10)
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Comments

luigi43 said…
A very pretentious movie. Absurd an unrealistic : can You imagine to love Your reluctant long-time companion and impose him a baby? Tony is presented like a fanatic and a missed ( hysterical) woman . Of course this is just my opinion according my tastes .
March 28, 2019 at 5:19 PM
Golu said…
but you are right. the film was a disaster
March 30, 2019 at 7:58 PM
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