Review of Big Eden

Introduction

Big Eden is a good, old-fashioned romantic movie of the sort that used to star people like Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant. But it`s a romance with a difference. It`s a gay romance.

Not your limp-wristed, ever-lispin`, Quentin-Crispin` species of gay but gay-gay in that the couple that the movie follows happens to consist of two homosexual males. An artist and a Native American storekeeper to be precise.

Now, not being gay myself, I have difficulty relating to the characters and their relationship. However, I`m enough of an old softie at heart and what they go through is pretty typical romance fodder that the heart-on-its-sleeve gayness of the movie isn`t really an issue. However, if you`re one of those folk who foams at the mouth at the very idea of blokes snogging, then you might want to give this a miss.

Something of a hit at Stateside film festivals, the movie was received with incredulity by a good number of mainstream US movie critics. The picture`s stumbling block was most people couldn`t reconcile small-town Montana as a homophilic paradise where even the grizzled old farts on the General Store porch play a positive role in the romance of a taciturn Native American and a sensitive artist returned home from New York.

At just shy of two hours, it`s a leisurely-paced exercise of feel-good film-making.

Video

Judging from the non-anamorphic trailer on the disc, the movie was shot in 2.35:1, although sadly ILC have made a bog-standard 4:3 (fullscreen) transfer. The picture is acceptable but nothing to write home about.

Audio

A DD2.0 Stereo rendition. The Country and Western flavoured score suits the Marlboro Man scenery.

Features

There are interviews with the director and principals, some deleted scenes and a theatrical trailer, but sadly no subtitles for those who might need them. The disc is Region 0 PAL standard.

Conclusion

This is so not my kind of movie, but chacun a son gout. It`s well made, full of fine performances and sympathetic characters. It just left me cold. Sorry.