The Love Patient

The unanimous reaction after most of us walked out after the screening of the film was 'It was so bad'. A few of us looked at each other and remarked how could this film have been in the top 10 favorites of the festival committee but then hey everyone has their own choices. But it seemed like most of us belonged to the category where they questioned this American indie comedy. The story of a self centered executive who will go to any lengths to win his ex-back just did not go well with me and quite a few others.

Paul, an ad-executive now realizes after almost a year of breakup that he might have lost something very good with his ex Brad. Since Paul is a self centered man who just thins about himself, and is not used to losing, he wants to win his man back. Brad on the other hand is now dating another colleague Alex who is bisexual. Paul comes up with a plan with his doctor friend Burt. Burt needs a lot of money to save his clinic which Paul offers to give him if Burt plays along with the act that Paul has cancer. This could bring Brad back to him. Initially reluctant, Burt agrees and this is when the mess begins. Because of the news, Paul's family of parents and sister move in with him to take care of him. It also brings Brad back to him. Brad starts working with Paul at home on the project and slowly they start remembering old days. It seems things are falling back in place. Meanwhile Paul's sister seduces Alex following which Brad and Alex break up. But when he finds out the truth about Paul's fake cancer from his sister who was always suspicious, he is deeply hurt but as expected everything ultimately falls in place after some drama.

This movie could never make up mind whether they wanted to be a simple comedy, over the top comedy, a lil bit serious or just plain simple annoying. Paul's character was supposed to be annoying which I guess he did well but Brad seemed as if he just came out of a sugar jar. So sweet always and with pretty much similar expressions on his face throughout. And dont even ask about the woman who played Paul's mother. She was sooooo over the top that it was annoying. The film took a long time to build up the whole story of fake cancer and then just suddenly out of the blue, the beans are spilled (as if the director just ran out of steam and wants to finish the film). But that does not actually happen. As sudden as Paul's secret is found, in the next 5 minutes we also see how Paul realizes his mistake and finally over a period of time wins back Brad by right means. The end seemed so rushed. The screenplay was not evenly divided throughout the film. And to top all this, there wasn't enough eye-candy too.

This movie joins the rank of really bad indie gay cinema that US produces. Please, lets learn from some of our best foreign gay films. (2/10)