AndieCrafts

After watching the trailer for this movie months back, I was very much enticed to watch it. Maybe for sheer interest, or, well, self-diagnosis, I can’t quite say. But you don’t come around movies regarding homosexuality too often, so I decided to give it a shot. I can’t say I hated it, but it wasn’t as great as I expected it to be either (maybe the humor in the trailer led me to expect much more than I should).

Here is an excerpt from the movie summary (which leaves not much room for the imagination) that I got from their official site (www.graymattersmovie.com).

They finish each other’s sentences, dance like Fred and Ginger, and they’re all hearing wedding bells. All? No ménage-a-tois here - just siblings Gray and Sam (Heather Graham and Tom Cavanaugh), thirty-something New Yorkers so compatible they share a downtown loft, love to watch the same classic movies, jog together, look out for each other and, to their biggest surprise, wind up falling in love with the same woman.

First and foremost, the theme of the movie gets a little messy (especially if you have watched the trailer first). I first thought that the movie was about both Gray and Sam, and how they were going to overcome that twisted little obstacle of being siblings in love with the same woman (a unique approach to sibling rivalry, by the way). But then, it eventually strays to a path where Gray has to battle with her sexuality, almost alone (well, without her brother, that’s for sure). The movie also had a lot of fillers a.k.a. extenders* throughout its hour-and-half duration. Plus, the audio and lighting at Gaisano Mall of Davao Cinema 5 cut the entire movie experience a little above unpleasant. I’d say, after expecting so much from the trailer, I was a tad disappointed.

But it wasn’t entirely bad. A round of applause is due the cast (Heather Graham as Gray, Tom Cavanaugh as Sam, Bridget Moynahan as Charlie, Alan Cumming as Gordy, etc…,) and the debutant director, Sue Kramer. As her first film, I’d say it was a job done (notice the lack of well in that phrase). The cast made the entire movie more pleasant to both the ears and eyes, plus the way they delivered their lines made the audience feel the homey-ness of the film. What makes this film worth watching is the new points-of-view it offers on homosexuality, and the possibility of it being in our system without us knowing it.

If I were given the choice to buy the DVD, or to watch it again, I would say “pass” to that. But this review does not serve as a means of spoiling your viewing experience of the film (just in case you were still interested), and so I have made a list of suggestions to enhance your viewing experience of Gray Matters.

• If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, please, by all means, do not watch it.
• Find yourself a good cinema with good audio and lighting, even if it means splurging a little more than when viewing in a cheap cinema. The film has a lot of ‘dark’ scenes, which means going to a cinema with horrible lighting is a big no-no. Also, the punchlines would not mean a thing if you can’t hear them properly, so do yourselves a favor and do not do what I did.
• If you have friends to go with, please do so. It’s best to share the laughter with friends. And trust me, if you want a good clean laugh, then this movie is for you.

Here are some of my favorite scenes from the movie, so look out (if you still plan to watch the film):

• Gray and Charlie dancing that cute little dance in sync with the television in Sam and Gray’s downtown loft (notice that Gray and Charlie’s costumes were also in sync to those of the characters in the television)
• Gordy pretending to be a gay woman to get into a gay bar with Gray.
• The amazing kiss between Charlie and Gray (winner scene, by the way)
• “Take the R out of GRAY, and BINGO!!!” - Gray’s exact words when she revealed her gay situation to Sam
• Gray’s hallucination (a woman walking by in her underwear)

Hope you have fun watching!

* fillers a.k.a. extenders are those scenes that do not contribute to the story line at all. One good example would be when Gray, Sam, and Charlie were dancing in this Mexican restaurant, and you can’t see the point of the full minute (or two) inclusion of their dancing in the film (they don’t dance that well, and it’s not like you can see the “sibling rivalry” or Gray’s gay issue while they where dancing).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 9:46 pm and is filed under movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.