Bear-112 Review of World and Time Enough

World and Time Enough (1994)

Am unusual film, which rarely develops as you would expect.

[27 October 1999]

I am surprised to be the first to add my views on this film, as gay films usually seem to attract lots of comments! This one is different in a number of ways, not least because of the plot's twists & turns, especially in the last 20 minutes, leaving you agonising about the final outcome! In fact my main criticism would be that, having chosen & developed very believable characters, the writer/director then makes them behave in very strange ways at times to forward the plot. However, the best part of the film, and the main reason I stayed hooked until the end, is the central relationship between Mark & Joey. For once this is seen as the most stable element in the film. There is no doubt about their faithfulness to each other, no big break-up/reconciliation. Even Mark's HIV status is not a dominant feature, but simply one element in the story. So this film is certainly one of the best portrayals of a gay partnership that I have ever seen. One final comment - I was intrigued when checking out the stars on the IMDB database that none of them seem to have done anything else in movies or TV. This seems to be a familiar pattern for so many American gay films, and I'd be intrigued to know why this is.