Would-be feel-good drama from the UK, adapted by Jonathan Harvey from his play, is an overly-familiar tale about sexual awakening. Two teenage boys in a lower-income London housing project struggle with their hesitant attraction for each other, but Harvey's script starts too soon in the story (a headier examination of these lives might begin about an hour into the proceedings). There's really no need for all this teary melodrama over the gay issue--haven't we've seen it all before? One of the boys is predictably less comfortable with his homosexual feelings than the other, and their awkward relationship is exacerbated by their families and mates (one of whom, a black neighbor into Cass Elliot's music, is having deep-seated troubles of her own). The film indeed has a touching finish, but Harvey is far too tentative with this subject matter. Let us see the beauty of what's been worked out, and not just the clichéd, interminable hardships of being a misfit. ** from ****
Review of Beautiful Thing
