Those People (2015)
Falling in love with your best friend generally has one of two extreme conclusions. The one we would hope for is the most amazing love affair in the history of humankind. The other is the complete and utter destruction of a friendship. In this case it’s worse because the destruction extends out past the initial blast zone.
Synopsis: “On Manhattan’s gilded Upper East Side, a young painter, Charlie, finds the man of his dreams in an older pianist from across the globe. If only Charlie weren’t secretly in love with his own manipulative best friend, Sebastian, who is embroiled in a financial scandal. In the wake of Sebastian’s notoriety, their tight-knit group of friends must confront the new realities of adulthood.”
Charlie’s BFF Sebastian may or may not know in the beginning how Charlie feels about him. Really I wonder if he knows until Charlie tells him in the most awkward encounter of the movie. It seems like Sebastian is just too caught up in himself, and everything that Charlie perceives as want is just Sebastian’s non-malicious wanting of Charlie’s continued attention. Unfortunately, this makes Sebastian a little hard to like.
The Charlie and Tim affair is nice, but odd in its start. Luckily we are shown how they grow to know each other and the relationship blossoms through the “getting to know you” montage. You can see that Charlie seems genuinely happy, but when Sebastian comes up again his whole world seems to disintegrate. It’s like a pimple that you thought was gone until you scratch it and it hurts like hell.
It’s not until the end of the film that we start to see changes in the characters and how they grow. Which is fine. I wanted to see more of how Charlie grew through because leaving the film I’m not sure if he matured or not.
This film is very well put together, and production values are very good. It was the feature film one night at the Bloomington Pride Film Festival, and it lived up to the description. One caveat that may affect my thoughts here: the audio was not good, and myself and others around me missed some dialogue. I’ll be interested to see it again to see if it was the theater or the film, and to see what other nuances I can pick up.
It’s a question that has been explored many times in film and in real life, and most of us have experienced that unrequited love that disturbs us long after it’s over. Those People explores it in a different way, and is worth a watch.
Unrated until I see it again with all the dialogue. J Temporary rating is 3 apples and a banana.
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