Reviews

I am totally baffled by the praise heaped on this film. I just saw it at the San Diego Gay and Lesbian Film Fstival (FilmOut), where it was the closing feature. Each festival screening starts with the Executive Director talking about how great the films are. C.R.A.Z.Y. was singled out for special mention each time. With so much hype, I expected at least a mediocre film, and I hoped for a great one.

This first part of the movie is stock and formulaic, but still interesting. We follow the main character through his birth and first seven years. So far, this could be any gay film. Then, the character hits puberty. The film telegraphed his homosexuality, his father's intolerance, and his mother's ineffectualness, so none of that came as a surprise, but was competently portrayed. Following this point, however, like the broken record that was part of the plot, the film gets stuck, repeating the same scenes over and over. From here on, the film stops making any forward progress at all. The characters don't develop, nothing new of them is revealed, the plot doesn't advance. The main character tries to fit in and be "normal" while occasionally experiencing the illicit thrill of borderline sexual contact with another man. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The character indulges in magical thinking, believing that his actions will change reality. This started when he was a very small boy, avoiding stepping on sidewalk cracks so that his mother will give birth to a boy. But now he risks his life in a series of stunts, believing that if he does so and survives, he will be "cured" of being gay. Over and over. The film even includes about twenty totally pointless minutes of him running to the other side of the world, literally, to escape his reality, but of course repeating the same behavior, in the same way. Again and again.

Eventually, after subjecting the audience to such repetitive drivel that we first stop caring what happens to the characters, then actually hope the lead finally succeeds in killing himself, if only to bring the interminable film to an end, and presumably only because the director ran out of both film stock and money to buy more, it ends. It doesn't advance to an ending, it doesn't resolve anything through drama; it just ends. As if to reinforce that he simply ran out of film and cash, the director has the lead character just tell us, in a voice-over, how it all turns out.

If you see this movie, go home about mid-way through, and read a spoiler. Either way, you'll be merely told the resolution. But it'll be much more satisfying not to have been forced to sit there as the same few scenes are endlessly repeated for an extra hour beforehand.

Sure, the music was well-chosen and evocative. But buy a mix CD and save yourself the grief.

I notice a lot of the earlier comments seemed to feel this film is wonderful because it is Canadian. That's an insult to Canadian filmmakers. I've seen a lot of really terrific films from Canada. This isn't one of them.