michaelwsf
This movie was awful and I could barely get through it! The actors were bad and seemed as if they were just randomly picked up off the streets and asked to participate in a gay Christmas movie.I lived in San Francisco for 16 years and even in that very gay city there aren't gay guys trying to pick you up in every public bathroom that you enter, nor are there overly cheery gay guys with cheap, fake smiles dominating every college campus.The dialog was just as bad as the acting. The clueless, hippy-ish father was extremely unconvincing in his role, but in his defense he is very handsome.Don't waste your time on this movie!
johannes2000-1
Due to my own not-so-good experiences with my coming-out (thanks, mum and dad!!), I'm a real sucker for feel-good coming-out movies - they never fail to bring me to some heartfelt tears of shared happiness. So with these kind of movies I'm not that critical as to whether the script, the direction or the acting is really above par. That's a good thing with this movie, for it's rather balancing on the verge. Although I enjoyed it and it served it's purpose, there are many flaws.For starters: there seem to have been made some strange and awkward choices in the editing. At many, many points the movie comes to a stand-still, when the camera lingers far too long on the face of a person after he or she has said or done something. When you want to stress some Deap Meaning this can be quite functional, but in a comedy, or at least at moments when comedy is intended, it's killing: it not only effects the pace but it sucks the punch out-off every punch-line! This brings me to my next reservation: there are way too many double entendres in the script, it dangerously tilts the movie to the point of below-the-belt cheapness. Sure, I laughed at some of them (even at the beaver-joke), but it annoyed me too, this movie didn't need all that, since it's a situational comedy the fun should come out of the situation itself and the opposite characters.Another reservation concerns the side-characters (and thus again the script). When you have so few characters in the story (in fact there are only four important ones, apart from the girl next door), and two of them (both parents) are personified and pictured in such an extreme and surreal way, then in my opinion it becomes totally top-heavy and negatively affects the balance of the story. One lunatic parent, with maybe one or two lunatic neighbors would had been quite enough.A last negative remark to the script: although it's a comedy, there ought to be maintained - especially in this kind of situational comedy - some sort of basic feeling of reality. Here this was put to the test way too often. Can a renowned professor walk around for a whole professional career being perpetually stoned out of his wits? Are these parents (obviously from the 60's love-generation) blind as bats, not to see that their son's room-mate Nathan is gayer than gay?! Is the switch of the neighbor-girl from love-sick goody two-shoes to an almost professional foul-mouthing fag-hag not a tiny bit too abrupt and weird?? And is the almost utopian coolness of both parents at the eventual outing of their son not a tiny bit out-of sync with the beforehand constant hammering of at least mama with her son on the theme of girls, marriage, family etc.? Wouldn't such cool and unorthodox parents (who make out with each other almost publicly, have such loud sex that their son has to put a pillow over his head, and with a father who walks around the house with his morning-gown hanging open and in that state even opens the front door when a stranger calls) - wouldn't such cool and care-free parents have already brought up the topic of sex with their only son a long time ago?? Well, anyway, now for the good things. This is without any doubt a very sympathetic, warm and sincere movie. There is, thank god, not so much a Big Message that has to be drilled-in, it just keeps close to the real-life fears of a gay adolescent when being on the brink of revealing his true self to his family: will they accept me in this new light? will I disappoint them? will things change between us? The script doesn't provide a big plot - like in so many other comparable coming-of-age movies - with complicated misunderstandings, plot-shifts and all kinds of side-stories; no, it just sort of strolls along on it's basic theme and in this way gets a nice and quiet development. The comedy-elements are, as said, not of the most subtle kind, but in spite of the serious theme the lighthearted tone of the movie succeeds in making you smile all the time, and that is not a bad thing. The characters of the parents are unrealistic and over-the-top, so it must have been hard for the actors to make something out of it, but I have to give credit to Kelly Keaton who gives, within the limits and pitfalls of the script, a very good, enthusiastic and affectionate performance. The main characters are of course Olav and Nathan, both are given a fine and convincing portrayal by Keith Jordan resp. Adamo Ruggiero. I didn't know Ruggiero, I never saw "Degrassi", he's certainly beautiful and very cute and I thought that he grew in his role; he was supposed to be the gayish extrovert of the two boyfriends, but he proved that within that stereotype he could actually find his own nuances - for instance when father Gunnunderson finds him all alone on a sidewalk terrace, Ruggiero really succeeds in moving you. But I especially liked Keith Jordan, he had this subdued, under-cooled (as we say in Holland) way of acting that only enhanced the feeling of reality, and he is so cute and endearing in his seriousness, that it made me want to put his head on my shoulder and tell him that eventually everything would be okay!All in all the good things far outweighed the bad, and I vote it a heartfelt 8 out of 10!
dennis_chiu1
Writer / Director Rob Williams has created a pleasant and funny independent, small budget film that features a stand-out performance by Keith Jordan as Olaf 'Gunn' Gunnunderson, the main character who is a gay student leader at college, but stuck in the closet with his Midwestern family. Christmas time is the setting for a sometimes hilarious and touching coming out story.Jordan reaches a genuine honesty in every scene, and considering how fast the shooting schedule is for these low budget features, this is the mark of genuine talent. Jordan's performance is the heart and core of the film and keeps it grounded despite the screenplay by Rob Williams that is filled to the brim with sexual double entendres. However, through the miracle of Jordan's pitch perfect performance, no matter how many references there are to tops, bottoms, muffins, and penis size, the film stays on course.Support for Jordan's acting comes from Austin Wintory's low-key folksy songs and soundtrack that provides a grounded tone to each scene, and from a great supporting role by Hallee Hirsh, who plays Jordan's ex-high school sweetheart. For "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fans, Gates "Beverly Crusher" McFadden has a brief but important role that is the catalyst for mayhem as the mother of Olaf's boyfriend, Nathan Stanford (played by Adamo Ruggiero), who abandons Nathan at Christmas, forcing him to seek refuge at his boyfriend's home -- thereby creating the pressure on Olaf to come out to his parents."Make the Yueltide Gay" was a surprisingly entertaining late night film downloaded from Neflix that held my attention. If you keep your expectations at the level of a campy low budget film, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I recommend this film.
