I've been a fan of Adamo Ruggiero since his earliest Degrassi days and I really wanted to like this film. Unfortunately it was so poorly made that I can never recommend it to any of my friends. The film just couldn't seem to get out of it's own way.
The parents and the neighbors were more caricatures than characters. In fact they would have had to have been toned down considerably to have been reasonable caricatures.
The dialogue was good in spots but then seemed to immediately slip off the rails. The dialogue jokes were forced at best and often groan-worthy. If half of them had been removed, the story might have been able to carry them but as it was they were just too much. Just as there always seemed too be one syllable too much in the name Gununderson, the lines always seemed to go a bit too far.
Actually, the main characters Olaf and Nathan were OK and both actors were adorable and able to make me care about their characters. However, the mother's character was just too far over the top and the father was beyond "beyond." (I've seen Derek Long in one of this director's earlier works and he was MUCH better in that) I'm not saying that the actors didn't do a great job with what they were given but this film could have really used at least one more script revision before it was shot.
I've often railed about the lack of perspective that occurs when the writer is also the director and this film is just another example of that problem.
Just one example should suffice but this does contain a spoiler so be forewarned: When Nathan returns to the Gununderson's house after claiming that he's going to fly home. The audience is concerned with what Olaf will think and do. Will he welcome Nathan back? Will he finally be honest with his parents? Instead we're given a meaningless joke about headless gingerbread men. The joke was entirely unnecessary, and then it isn't even executed correctly as Nathan lifts a normal gingerbread man from a plate that has just been shown to contain only headless ones.
Overall I really wanted to like this movie and it wasn't as painful as a few gay films that I've been unable to sit through but it was clearly pushing that limit.
The parents and the neighbors were more caricatures than characters. In fact they would have had to have been toned down considerably to have been reasonable caricatures.
The dialogue was good in spots but then seemed to immediately slip off the rails. The dialogue jokes were forced at best and often groan-worthy. If half of them had been removed, the story might have been able to carry them but as it was they were just too much. Just as there always seemed too be one syllable too much in the name Gununderson, the lines always seemed to go a bit too far.
Actually, the main characters Olaf and Nathan were OK and both actors were adorable and able to make me care about their characters. However, the mother's character was just too far over the top and the father was beyond "beyond." (I've seen Derek Long in one of this director's earlier works and he was MUCH better in that) I'm not saying that the actors didn't do a great job with what they were given but this film could have really used at least one more script revision before it was shot.
I've often railed about the lack of perspective that occurs when the writer is also the director and this film is just another example of that problem.
Just one example should suffice but this does contain a spoiler so be forewarned: When Nathan returns to the Gununderson's house after claiming that he's going to fly home. The audience is concerned with what Olaf will think and do. Will he welcome Nathan back? Will he finally be honest with his parents? Instead we're given a meaningless joke about headless gingerbread men. The joke was entirely unnecessary, and then it isn't even executed correctly as Nathan lifts a normal gingerbread man from a plate that has just been shown to contain only headless ones.
Overall I really wanted to like this movie and it wasn't as painful as a few gay films that I've been unable to sit through but it was clearly pushing that limit.