The Stranger in Us

CinemaSerf 1/26/2024 5:19:10PM 8.4

"Anthony" (Raphael Barker) has one of those slightly irritating on/off relationships with his rather selfish and thoughtless boyfriend "Stephen" (Scott Cox) that leads the former to find himself walking the streets one night and meeting the young "Gavin" (Adam Perez). This latter young man oozes a streetwise confidence that "Anthony" finds compelling after a while and the two start to bond a little. It's not a romance as such, it's a rather peculiar form of inter-dependency and for a while director Scott Boswell manages to keep the personalities interesting enough. Unfortunately, though, we quickly find ourself in a rather well trammelled gay story that plays a bit to a San Francisco's rather poisonous stereotype that couldn't make a decision if the city was, once again, on fire! Perez adds a bit of charm to his character, and is easy enough on the eye - but that gloss peters out as we discover that - well you'd have to watch and see, before a rather disappointingly flat conclusion to an over long 1¾ hours of melodrama filmed in a fashion that I found initially quite creative, but ultimately pointless. I suppose it's asking us to try and take stock of just how well we actually know ourselves, but with too much verbiage. Sorry, one to avoid I'm afraid.