Review: Gray Matters

.....When you watch enough films a majority of them fall into the category of just okay. I sort of expected the 2006 film Gray Matters to fall into this category. Unfortunately it falls even lower. Into the category dangerously close to loathing, but not quite. Actually the best word to describe it is probably annoying. Annoying as hell.
......The story is of a young women, named Gray (Heather Graham) and her surgeon brother, Sam (Thomas Cavanaugh). Sam and Gray are as close as they can be to one another. They dance to old movies together, live together and as the film’s central plot, fall in love with the same women together. That woman’s name is Charlie (Bridget Moynahan.) Does the superfluous use of gender neutral names bother anybody else?
Ultimately Gray’s coming to terms with her sexual identity is one of the dumbest, most naive representations of the “coming out” story I have ever seen. It is as if writer/director Sue Kramer has never met a gay or lesbian person in her life. To her sexuality is something that just happens one day on the way to work. And I suppose because sexuality is different for different people this is possible. But the feelings she struggles with are so artificial and disingenuous to what “coming out” is really like for most people, that the film is almost insulting to this important struggle.
.......Of course the film’s worse sin is not its ideology, but its basic attempt to call itself a comedy. Comedies are by rule supposed to have in them at least one joke or comical experience. The movie is as devoid of humour as it is of life.
........I could go on. The script is so damn after school special I could hardly take it. The camera work was shoddy. The acting was lame and wholly unconvincing. And frankly the majority of the time I watched the film I kept thinking about one sad reality. And that, dear friends, is that cinema geared to toward gay and lesbian audiences generally sucks. I know that sounds cold and there are many wonderful expectations. But films like this fuel the stereotype that self deemed “gay cinema” is really awful. I think you could argue that the film is more user friendly than other gay fare and may fit more firmly in the “quirky indie” world, but still it helps naysayers prove their point. And while it is not in the job description of the film’s artists to fight naysayers, Sue Kramer and this stupid little film sure are helping their cause.
.........Wow, sorry Sue. I promise I will watch your next film and wish you the best of luck.