God's Own Country, 2017
Johnny (Josh O'Connor) lives on a farm with his parents, where ever since his father, Martin (Ian Hart), had a stroke he has been the main worker taking care of the sheep and cattle. Johnny is miserable--hiding the fact that he is gay from his parents and indulging in too much drinking and one-off sexual encounters--and barely pulls his weight. With the work on the farm piling up, Johnny's parents hire Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian immigrant, to help out. Sparks fly between Johnny and Gheorghe, but will Johnny's self-destructive habits get in the way of their romance?
A lot of films about gay romance center on the fraught nature of such relationships--whether that comes from internalized homophobia or the threat of violence from their families and communities. (And don't get me wrong--these are important stories to tell). I really enjoyed seeing a film that had a different point of view and approach to a gay romance. The focus in this film isn't on whether or not the relationship will work because it is a gay relationship, but whether or not Johnny can figure himself out in time to preserve the good thing that he and Gheorghe have going.
The thing that I loved about this movie was the way that it showed how a person can change the dynamic of those around them. Sex and attraction isn't what Johnny has been missing. What he has been missing is love and affection and intimacy. Gheorghe is both patient and instant. He won't accept Johnny refusing to touch his face or look at him. In one really excellent sequence, Gheorghe reaches out a single finger to touch Johnny's hand as they wait in the hospital cafeteria. Moments later, the lingering impact of this touch leads Johnny to reach out and take his sick father's hand. Gheorghe's gentle insistence transforms different locations around the farm--the hillside, the dinner table, the bathtub--into places where Johnny can connect with himself and his loved ones. Weirdly, it made me think of the quote from the article I read about
Dirty Dancing and the power of acting with decency to inspire others to act with decency. Gheorghe's decency has a positive impact on all those around him.
John O'Connor and Alec Secareanu have great, easy chemisty with each other, and Secareanu is incredibly charismatic. Gheorge could have come across as almost too saintly, but instead he comes across as someone who simply knows what he wants and calmly pursues it. He won't let Johnny use slurs against him, he won't tolerate harassment from a local, and he won't put up with Johnny's behavior. The love scenes between the two characters--and especially the first sequence--are appropriately sexy and exciting, but they are also excellently realized extensions of the character arc that Johnny is on. With a few moments of choreography and exchanged glances, you can see that Gheorghe is helping Johnny redefine his relationship with his own sexuality.
Ian Hart and Gemma Jones are also very strong as Johnny's parents. The sequences in the last act of the film in which Johnny and his father reconnect with each other and finally speak their feelings are really excellent.
The style of the film was also something that I enjoyed. The landscape is absolutely gorgrous, but at the same time isolating. Writer/director Francis Lee uses the setting to maximum effect--you can understand why Johnny and his parents feel so strongly about keeping the farm, but at the same time you can understand how a young man--and especially a young gay man--would feel completely alone and stifled by it. I also enjoyed a very simple trick of using warm colors and light in scene with Gheorghe. It gives the sense of a comforting aura around him, helping us to understand not only Johnny's sexual attraction to him, but also the love and comfort he finds in him.
I would warn anyone who is squeamish about animal suffering that the film does take place on the farm and there are several unsimulated sequences. For example, we see a calf that has died from a breach birth. We see a character skin a dead lamb (I fast-forwarded this sequence). The characters themselves are not being cruel to the animals, but it's the kind of thing you might want to be prepared to see. The ending may have also been
WARNING: spoilers below
a bit optimistic in terms of how the parents would react to their son being gay and living in their home with a romantic partner
a bit optimistic in terms of how the parents would react to their son being gay and living in their home with a romantic partner
.
All in all I thought that this film was really strong and I thought that the development of the relationship between the main characters was particularly strong.
EDIT: Just realized that I know Secareanu from
Amulet, the flawed-but-interesting horror I watched a short while back. Dude is talented.