Customer Review

With the recent success of Brokeback Mountain, this beautifully shot Montana-based fairytale romance will become ever more widely seen in its DVD release. DVD is not widescreen, sadly.

Although labelled 'gay', Big Eden addresses universal themes of family, acceptance, community, death and ageing. The central tenet is of searching for home and belonging in a small rural community.

A good movie for those struggling to 'come out' to ageing parents. There are one or two scenes of powerful dialogue, but generally this is light fare.

Bucking the trend of most gay movies, Big Eden features a non-urban setting, multiracial and multigenerational cast of average lookers, no sex, with a close and diverse community centred around the local church.

The casting and production values cannot be faulted, the script is schmaltzy in places. I believe the writer was attempting to get away from the steroetypical gay pretty boy conquers LA style of movie. However I found some of the older characters in particular were either stereotypical on the one hand or lacked conviction and depth.

The action is set in an idyllic imaginary world divorced of hated and bigotry, where acceptance is normal. However, I remained ultimately unconvinced by the unrequited love between the two central characters, and the ending was so saccharine and entirely unbelievable that I re-assessed what would otherwise have been a grade 5 to a grade 4.

An interesting departure from the norm, in the way that Maurice was a departure from the usual tragic gay novel in its day, and probably this movie will enter the gay canon of touchstone movies. Watch it, but have modest expectations.