(2016, 75 min)
Country: U. S.
Director: Rob Williams
Studio: Wolfe Releasing
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: A sexy, feel-good gay romantic comedy. In this romantic holiday comedy, married Laslo and Cal take in a gay teen who’s been kicked out of his home; Sid and Gray have a casual online hookup which unexpectedly deepens; and Julian and Dylan confront their secret mutual attraction when forced to share a bed for a week. Their stories come together at a "Steve Not Eve" New Year’s party.
REVIEW:
Set in Los Angeles, these three couples are all somehow connected to each other. There’s married couple Laslo (Christopher Grant Pearson) and Cal (Alec Manley Wilson) who live in a very cosy home and make fun of their friends with children – always telling themselves that 'they are not that couple' who 'always have to arrange play dates for their children.' And then there are roommates Julian (Daniel Lipshutz) and Dylan (Robert Werner). Dylan travels 36 weeks out of the year for work, so Julian rents his room out to strangers on LGBTQBnB while he’s away. But Dylan comes home early from a business trip to find a stranger named Frank Turner (David Vaughn) in his bedroom, so he has to share Julian’s bed, a thought, and fantasy, Dylan has had for two years! And finally third couple Sid (Justin Xavier) and Gray (Alexander Neil Miller), who casually meet up on an app called Manfinder. They instantly connect, while Sid shares with Gray a deep dark secret about his past, and lucky for us, they spend all of their time together naked.
These men all happily share their lives, and their rooms, with other men, during Christmas, however, there is drama lurking in the background. Houseguest Frank Turner is in town to look for his long-lost kidnapped brother, and Cal’s gay nephew Blake (a very good and natural Eric Allen Smith) arrives after having been kicked out of his parent’s house.
Shared Rooms, by writer and director Rob Williams, is cleverly written and very cute and funny. It’s like watching a gay version of Modern Family – everyone is a bit dysfunctional yet sweet and charming in their own way. Everything wraps up a bit too easily at the end, culminating in a New Years Eve Party where everyone has found what they were looking for (if only life were that easy), but it’s a funny and cute journey to get there.
-- Tim Baros, The GayUK (http://www.thegayUK.com/)
