A thought provoking film

If you want a film to switch off to this possibly isn't it - though some clearly were switched off by it. Disappointment seems to have arisen, so to speak, from its certificate - certainly this is not what most straight 18 cert films are like.

It's thoughtful, engaging, funny and moving. A short story in film form, it achieves what for me is its toughest task - an emotional involvement with the characters. From there it takes us into some view points on what relationships might mean and look like for gay men.

The subject has been filmed now (after a long famine) in a number of ways from the superficial, the pornographic, the sentimental, the heavily analytical (and we sure now how to put the anal, in its many incarnations, desirable and undesirable, into that word).

This film strikes a nice balance: it's neither slick nor abstruse but compassionate - though not lacking in acerbic wit. In my opinion, it still has something of value to say to more recent audiences and film-makers.