(2016, 106 min)
Country: U. S.
Director: Jeff Swafford
Studio: Dekkoo Films
Language: English
SYNOPSIS: Worn out from his life in New York, Ben returns home to take care of his dying mother, only to rediscover the reasons he left. Picking up their contentious relationship, Ben tries to muddle through his mother's every day demands as well as the unresolved feelings he left behind. His only solace comes from the rekindled relationships with his neighbor Lori and her hunky brother Joe, who has since turned straight after Ben broke his heart. Can Ben mend these wounds and return to his old life? Or will he leave again... this time for good?
REVIEW:
Ben (Christopher Howell) is a gay man ho goes home to a small Tennessee town to take care of his ailing mother (Cinda McCain). He was tired of his life in New York, but it took his return for him to remember why he had left. He and his mother had had a contentious relationship in the past and now he tries to deal with his mother’s demands and requirements along with the feelings that he thought he left behind him when he moved away. His only hope of solace comes from his relationships with his neighbor Lori and her brother Joe (James Fuertes) who had once been his partner but whose heart he had broken. Now Joe has become “straight” and Ben must find some way to forget the wounds so that they can all return to the way life had once been. Joe is excited about the chance to be with Ben again despite the hurt he has had to deal with. Ben realizes that by running away, he could forgot those problems but soon sees that running away has really not solved anything.
Because what we see is so real, this is a bit painful to watch. All of us are well aware that life is not always fun. It is strange that we know how this would end, yet it affects us as we watched. The acting is excellent all around and what really impressed me was the depth of the mother’s struggle.
There are actually only four important characters that had to deal with real family issues and they do so wonderfully. For those who have mothers who do accept their sons’ sexuality, there is something important to be seen here. In fact, for everyone there is something important to be seen. Life is all about relationships and only when Ben understood that his mother loved him was he willing to let her go. All she wanted was for him to be happy and even if they has different definitions of happiness, there was a mother/son bond there. While Ben’s mother was homophobic, she loved her children (as mothers do). This caused Ben to run away and stay away for fifteen years but he returned to take care of his mother.
-- Review by Amos Lassen, Reviews by Amos Lassen (http://www.reviewsbyamoslassen.com)
