User Reviews

The line that became the title does say it all. Naked As We Came into this world and naked is how we go. The rest is all good and bad baggage picked up along the way.

Brother and sister Ryan Vigilant and Karmine Alers are summoned to the bedside of their mother S. Lue McWilliams who is dying of cancer and wants to leave the world on some kind of good terms with her children. Her late husband was a U.S. Senator who was looking good to rise higher, but then inexplicably just gave up his career. At the end of the film we get a big hint as to why.

On the family estate they meet one hunky gardener in Benjamin Weaver who has many talents, writing, cooking, and seducing. But it's the son Ryan Vigilant whom he aims for and gets. He's on a mission, but in the process he becomes closer to McWilliams than either of her kids were.

Naked As We Came is an interesting character study of three people bound by blood, but as disparate as they get and the outsider who if he doesn't get them together at least brings about a better understanding.

Nice solid performances with the four leads. As the film is spent 95% of the time on the estate, the film bears comparison to Long Day's Journey Into Night. Not anywhere as good as the O'Neill classic, still Naked As We Came has its own definite merits.

Honestly, I think this is one of the best gay theme movies in 2013. Despite it's low budget film, everything run perfectly well. The great part is the casting. Richard LeMay, the director, really done a careful and brilliant job to pick up the only six casts. Well, he is also the writer, I guess he know know pretty much a fit character to his own story.

Like I said, it's low budget. The casts only six and 98% appeared only the fourth main actors and main location just in big house with big garden. But, surprisingly, I didn't get bored, a good cinematography really helped with that problem.

About the story, I have to say that it's not really original. I mean, I have seen some gay interest movie with the same main story, sick mother/father/children, broken family members, guilt, reconciliation, and new future, but somehow, I like "Naked As We Came" twisted ending. Well, I don't really expect that ending and still can't figured it out yet, but mostly I have some in mind. The ending really help with whole plot story.

Love the character. Actually, this movie still a simple story, I figure it out why Richard LeMay picked conspicuous characters for the four main actors. It was great, like to see every character develop as it's be. The only lack is Benjamin Weaver's character as Ted Kingsley. He has the worst acting and likely incomplete character.

The ending? Well, I guess everyone has their own dream ending. One last thing, I think this movie more likely called as family movie than gay theme/interest movie.

I'm highly recommended this movie. I just hope it has bigger budget, could be very promising movie.

At first glance we may think we are dealing with a gay movie. But it's not like that. It is a film full of clichés in which a dying mother wants to have the perfect relationship with her children, a relationship she has not had all her life until now. Like many people facing death, she can afford to be more open-minded and emotional and closer to her children. The fact that along the way between her boy and another boy who helps her forms a friendship that leads to sex, is not likely to convey something important in the film. In fact, the problem with the film is precisely this poverty of the message it was trying to convey ... for this reason the film is weak, somewhere at grade 6 at most.

The two women in the movie are the only ones worthy of any mention. However, as some other user already pointed out, Laura (played by Karmine Alers) is a cliché of the control freak and her singing moment is too soapy to be taken seriously. S. Lue McWilliams, however, is great as Lily. I think she doesn't over do it - even though she has cancer, she's the one in charge of keeping the movie light and entertaining with her brutal honesty. The weakest links are obviously the men and their expressionless faces. By looking at LeMay previous work, you can tell they were chosen just because of their physique - but he failed to create any kind of connection or memorable dynamic between the two of them even when they have some "intimacy". I did not hate it, I had a good time with it and we should also appreciate the fact that homosexuality is taken as an everyday thing and not a big revelation or the heartbreaking point in a movie that was already battling with other clichés of its own.

The two male protagonists in this film were clearly chosen for their pectorals rather than for their acting ability, and that about sums up the general quality of this forgettable drama. With the exception of S. Lue McWilliams who, as the dying mother (and only grownup), has too few moments on screen, the acting is very "daytime soap" – in short, overwrought and about as subtle as a crutch. Karmine Alers in particular starts at about 120% pit bull and ramps up from there. In most of her scenes you're too worried that she's going to have a stroke to pay attention to what she's saying. The scene in which she supposedly softens enough to expose her "true soul" by singing, a cappella, a banal Britney Spears knockoff is almost too painful to watch. The real dog of this movie, however, is the direction and the screenplay, maladroitly handled in both cases by Richard LeMay. LeMay shows that he understands approximately nothing about pacing, and there so many crescendo moments that the overall effect is numbing rather than engaging. The characters fight about the same things, over and over. They say the same terrible things to each other, over and over. They come to moments of gut-wrenching emotional crisis, over and over. And then they make breakfast. It's about as amateur as it comes, and LeMay cries wolf too many times. When we finally reach the final scene, Elliot's deathless lines can only provoke peals of laughter. For the entire rest of this film, his character has displayed the emotional depth of a garden gnome, and his sudden moment of deep, voiced-over wisdom is an unbelievable, unearned fortune-cookie aphorism.

Better than expected.... It's usually a danger sign when the same person writes, directs, produces a film, but in this case, it worked out well. Good choices of actors too. Elliot and Laura are brother and sister who finally go visit mom, who is in the late stages of cancer. They are surprised to find "Ted" living in the house with her, and part of the plot is figuring out how he fits into the picture. There's a love story (or maybe its just a "lust story"...), some family secrets, good times, bad times. The mother did an amazing job as someone realizing her time is almost up, and wants to connect with their kids before she passes away, and maybe impart some lessons she has learned along the way. Similar to Big Eden, from 2000 ! Family members return to the family home to care for a loved one, meet the locals, make life-changing decisions. Elliot is a little bit schizo, but if everything went smoothly, we wouldn't have much of a plot line. The final voice-over epilogue was a little weird... they probably should have filmed another scene, or maybe it didn't come out as they planned, so they tried to wrap it up with the voice-over. Good story. pretty realistic. Lemay gets credit for not making the characters too campy and predictable.

Naked As We Came deserved so much attention. it's a pretty emotional and beautiful!!

A quiet gem of a film--a moving, realistic, touching portrayal of a flawed family, and how they find their way back to one another in spite of their problems. Lovely message about forgiveness and acceptance--and with big unexpected dollops of humor. The acting is top-notch, particularly Lue McWilliams as a neglectful mom who finally lets herself soften and reach out to her children toward the end of her life, and Karmine Alers as her daughter Laura, filled with resentment and anger, but who lets forgiveness bring her back to her family. LeMay's direction is sure-handed and steady, letting the story unfold at its own pace and the moments of revelation be believably small, yet still beautifully affecting.

A very stupid, plodding, heavy-handed, badly written, badly directed, VERY badly acted (especially the "dying" mother who looks like she could wrestle lions in a circus), extremely tiresome movie about extremely unpleasant spoiled people with way too much money and way WAY too much unnecessary drama. The mother is dying. So what? People die. People as obnoxious as this bunch should die a lot sooner.

For some perverted, homophobic reason, many gay reviewers of gay movies LOVE to declare that a gay movie is not "really" gay. This is one of those movies. It isn't really a gay movie.

Oh, yeah? When two of the four characters in a movie are gay men, and the ONLY sex in the movie is between those two men (who are - of COURSE! - hot and buff and West-Hollywood hairless and gorgeous), and the two women in the movie are ugly, strident, manipulative, shrieking, raging and/or whining, moaning b!itches... THAT'S not a gay movie? Why? Because the phrase "eating out" is not in the title?

Ahhhh. NOW I understand!

Excellent production values. Very well cast (except that the daughter looks Spanish and the son looks British, even though they had the same father - but maybe there is a reason for that (Hold on til the end of the film.)). This movie resonates with a profundity of narrative that gives it an almost timeless quality. An antiquated ethos of modern, poignant familiarity. I have watched it three times and have discovered engaging nuances each time. This movie is especially interesting as a work of cinema that deals with homosexuality. Many films dealing with Gay issues are very low budget, because Gay themed movies don't do well at the box office, generally. But this movie is one of the top 10% of its genre.

The ten is for the hunks and the director Richard Lemay who really is at the forefront of hunk drama. The sizzling sparks in this film had me gyrating and dancing. Richard Lemay never disappoints. The film is really first rate in terms of production values although the script is a bit of a muddle and left me in the dark but the hunks more than made up for any deficiencies in the story. Twists and turns abound and keep you at the edge of your seat but with so much hunkdom who cares? Having just viewed Richard Lemay's 200 American which I regard as one of the hottest hunk films ever made, this film more than lives up to Lemay's unflappable ability to cast 100% hunks and that's what makes his films so exciting to watch.

not for story, who is far to be original. not really for cast - except S. Lue McWilliams who reminds few roles by Charlotte Rampling. maybe, interesting for first/last images, for music, for the location and for art of measure of director. but, surely , interesting for the imagine an European director, cast and manner to use the story. the delicate European / maybe French/ flavor is its basic virtue.the big sin - performance of Benjamin Weaver. than, the end. it is a family movie and a gay movie. and the impression after its end is far to be disappointed. because, it is not great or a revelation. but it is decent fresco of a family and a fragile relation , all in a not uninspired balance. so, just interesting.