8/10
highly enjoyable gay friendly entertainment
29 July 2011
True to the DVD cover art, "You Should Meet My Son" doesn't masquerade as being anything other than light and fun entertainment, but it is also honest and passionate. In brief, a young gay man has tried far too hard to keep his sexuality secret from his mother and aunt - to the point where his partner leaves for greener pastures. Brian's mother and her sister discover the big gay truth and quickly dispense with their culturally acquired bigotry. They then set out on a mission to find heartbroken Brian a suitable gay male partner - taking a crash course in gay community diversity and etiquette, but thankfully things are not that simple (and only marginally overladen with stereotypes).

Keith Hartman does a wonderful job with the script - keeping things fresh, lively and relevant. Hartman also ought to take a deep bow as director in his first feature film - and he happily gives plenty of due credit to the talented crew he assembled to make this film always look beautiful and interesting, and to also sound wonderful (especially, as we learn from the commentary tracks, in quite challenging circumstances). The editing is particularly praiseworthy - my award goes to Donna Matthewson. The slightly surreal colours remind me very much of the UK original 1999 Queer As Folk series (NB: the cinematrographic quality is much better in this film - due no doubt to the improvement in digital technology.) I recommend that anyone who likes the film should also take the time to watch the DVD with each of the two commentary tracks - and then watch the film again with the original soundtrack. Your appreciation is significantly amplified, making "You Should Meet My Son" a film which you're likely to recommend to all your family and friends, and to enjoy re-watching with them any number of times. An excellent original music soundtrack adds further lustre.

The cast all do a fine job and they must be very proud of the final edit. It's no surprise that this has been an award winner at gay and lesbian film festivals.
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