This documentary is nearly twenty years old now, and it follows a gay couple as they navigate the stressful and exciting journey of their first pregnancy through surrogacy. You get to see it all— the hope, the nerves, and the dramatic hurdles they have to clear along the way. Back in the day, this was probably a massive deal, but since I’ve known a few gay couples who’ve gone through this exact process, some parts felt a bit dated to me. I liked bits and pieces of it, but I also felt like the film stays pretty surface-level. It doesn't really dive into the deep, complicated reality of life after the baby actually arrives. If only raising a kid were actually as simple as this movie makes it look! Erik and Mark have been together in New York for ten years, and since they feel solid in their relationship, they decide they’re ready to raise a child. They start the hunt for a surrogate and eventually connect with Wen, a wife and mom from Maine who agrees to carry the baby for a standard...
Teenager Florian lives with his parents. He has excellent relationship with his mother who is everything to him, but not so well with his father, who is always struggling not knowing what to do with his son. Florian is fat, not interested in sports or girls, has two left hand. When the mother gets a stroke and is in coma, the father son have to reevaluate their relationship with one another. The father is a swimming coach and he takes Florian along with him to the pool. There Florian meets another boy and he starts to have feelings and sexual awakening to that boy. They sleep together one night (don't think sex happens). The father sees them and is confused but in some hilarious situations that follow, expresses his support to his son and him being gay. Needless to say the kids are embarrassed. Eventually the doctors decide the mother needs to be taken off ventilator, but the renewed father-son bond is going to take them through life journey much easily.
As I mentioned that this is not specifically gay film, but I did like the sequences where Florian starts to have a sexual awakening of his attraction towards another boy. Interestingly the mother probably always knew it, based on one of the scenes earlier in the film. Even better, and I am glad that they showed this with a comic angle, was the father showing his support for his son being gay. Sure, he fails miserably in his assumptions and his show of support but its the thought that matters. Besides all this, the film is actually a simple yet loving story of coming to terms with love and loss. We all have our ways of dealing with grief, but this film takes an inspirational route to show their perspective. The film doesn't take itself too seriously but takes the characters and their worries head on and that actually works in it's favour. Flori was such a wonderful and unusual protagonist and some of the dream like sequences are fun to watch. The film works because of the amazing acting by the father-son duo. A good fun time watch. (5.5/10)
Comments