Cure for Love (2008) User Reviews

Why didn't this documentary get more attention?

[hughman55 · 10/10 · 23 November 2018]

I can't believe that I'm only just now finding this 10 years after it was made. It is a very revealing and humanizing documentary about the gay reparative therapy community. And it so subtly walks you through, by way of the five main characters, what an injurious and inhumane practice it is.

The film opens with the marriage of Ana and Brian - two "repaired" homosexuals. Attending their wedding are two former members of the reparative group, Jonathan and Darren. They figured out how misguided "Christian" reparative therapy was and got out. When reflecting on their time with that community they are far more benevolent than I would have been. They speak candidly about the suffering they endured growing up in evangelical families, and all of the disapproval and self loathing that included. It is heartbreaking. Darren, remarking on Exodus in particular, observed that all of the speakers and leaders recount their miserable lives of promiscuity and anonymous sex. And how Jesus then saved them from that. And he asks the rhetorical question: "Was the healing in your life about promiscuity, or about homosexuality?" I never personally interacted with conversion therapy but I've lived long enough to know that those stories are nearly always full of promiscuity, drugs, and misery. And that straight or gay, that's going to make for an unhappy life. What these "ministries" have done is conflate injurious life choices with a person's fixed, predetermined, sexual orientation. It was a great observation.

The documentary concludes with the revelation that Jonathan has fallen in love with a man named Chris. And after nearly forty minutes of getting to know all of these people we get to see them having dinner together in Brian and Ana's home. Despite the different directions each couple has chosen they are amazingly supportive and loving towards each other. But the contrast between the two couples, Jonathan and Chris, and Ana and Brian, is uncomfortably revealing. Brian and Ana show no signs of being in love with one another. Their bond seems only to exist in their heads. Ana, in describing her marriage to Brian, refers to him as a "permanent roommate". Wow... Jonathan and Chris, by contrast, are what any sentient being would describe as "in love"; the human romantic kind that is undeniably real. And after what we've heard describe by the survivors of this medieval leeching practice, it's much needed breath of fresh air.

Homophobic religiosity and "reparative" therapy is being judged and it's not going well for them. There will be a reckoning one day. What these religious leaders and families have done to their gay children will be atoned for, and this barbaric practice will find it's way onto the trash heap of history along with witch burnings and exorcisms. And the sooner the better. One of Jonathan's closing statements is this: "I love my family. But what they believe about me is wrong. They're just wrong." And about that, he is right.

Alternative to syrup of Ipecac

[roedyg · 2/10 · 11 October 2012]

I can't think of any other movie I have ever watched that literally made my stomach flip and threaten to vomit.

This documentary is so full sanctimonious Christian tripe it is literally nauseating.

Brian Pengella, a Christian, grossly fat, older, bald, gay man imagines he is "cured", and marries a naïve woman, without even checking to see if sex with a female is possible for him and without any sort of check if he has heterosexual feelings. I think his motive was simply desperation — he was too unattractive to get laid as a gay man any more. He was cagey. He did not claim that his sexual orientation had changed, or that he was sexually attracted to his wife, just that they were happy in the relationship, which is of course quite plausible. Everyone in the movie lauds this creep who is so selfish without a thought what will happen to his wife when his science experiment fails.

Perhaps what these deluded Christians really need to be delivered from is anonymous, meaningless, promiscuous sex, not homosexuality. What they really long for is a loving gay relationship.

It is like going to a mental hospital and watching the inmates torment themselves with their delusions.

There is one semi-sane character, who points out that once he accepted himself, all the problems with being gay went away, seemed silly, and it was hard for him to remember what all the fuss was about. The rest of Christians are slitting their wrists, cutting themselves, imposing all various torments on themselves to fight imaginary demons. It is all so pointless. They were all being so stupid I wanted to reach into the screen and smack them.

To add insult to injury, they keep repeating dialogue over and over to pad the documentary, like some low -budget History channel piece.

The previous reviewer completely misunderstood the film

[christina-55403 · 10/10 · 28 March 2017]

This film beautifully and excruciatingly shows the tortured thinking of gays and lesbians trapped inside the now de-bunked 'reparative therapy' movement.

The film was designed to make viewers feel disturbed, revolted, outraged - so in that sense the previous reviewer had it right.

The filmmakers managed to get unprecedented access to a notoriously paranoid community, and shed much needed light on the damage that was being done within it.

Instead of using a heavy and condemning hand - adding to damage already done - by betraying its subjects, the film used restraint and simply turned the camera on the lunacy - letting the painful contortions of its participants speak for themselves.

Very well done.

Beautiful Film with Very Sympathetic Characters

[julimoosa · 10/10 · 30 March 2017]

Cure For Love is a very sweet movie about young Christian people and their struggle with homosexuality caused by their religion. Exodus is a Christian organization who's mission statement is to "eradicate homosexuality worldwide" Thankfully Exodus has closed it's door and Repairative Therapy (therapy to "heal" people of their homosexuality) was banned in several states, I think in part due to the exposure this film provides.

This film shows the pain of these young people, without throwing them under the bus and making them wrong, etc. In affect, this film doesn't cause more damage than has already been done in these peoples' lives and I really appreciate that! It would have been very easy to make Anna and Bryan look like fools, and they chose not to do that.

A very beautiful film. 5 Stars