Abrupt Decision

Abrupt Decision looks at how a gay couple are impacted by life-altering events. The thought behind the film was good but sadly the direction and the acting by its lead left a lot to be desired. There were moments when I could just not wait for the movie to end. It seemed it was going nowhere and at the same time it was going everywhere. The movie could have been a brilliant short film of 30 odd minutes but stretching it into a full length feature film was probably not the best idea.

Dennis is having a bad day. He gets laid off from his job of 20 years. His relationship with his long term boyfriend is going through a rough patch for a while. The boyfriend, works (read blogs) from home, so dennis is the primary bread earner. They live in suburbs so that they can be close to Dennis' mother who soon gets ill. Not knowing what to do after he loses his job, he thinks of a couple of things but none of them goes anywhere. When his ailing mother suggests them to get a dog. He goes to the shelter and is shocked to learn that older dogs are routinely euthanized there because of lack of space. To his boyfriend's irritation and disapproval, he brings 2 dogs home and then brings even more when he finds out they are gonna be soon put to rest. Dog after dog, finally Dennis realizes what he can do and ultimately for better, they keep all dogs to save them and the relationship of the couple is also saved.

Story sounds odd, doesn't it. Trust me, while watching I felt the same. Dennis just did not look natural. His helplessness just did not come across even 10%. On the contrast his boyfriend did a pretty decent job. Although the 2 of them did not share any decent chemistry and it wasn't also very clear why they had grown apart per the years. Dennis' mother was over the top with heavy southern accent but still fun to watch.

This is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination. DIfferent cinema doesn't always end in good cinema. (3/10)