"Angora Ranch" is a sweetly low-key romantic movie that has plenty of animals in it. There are rabbits, goats, horses and chickens (and the cat that managed to sneak into the dinner scene). But the romance is between two men who must overcome a different kind of animal: the paternal kind. Justin (Thomas Romano) is a 20-something cutie working for his father's advertising agency, a self-absorbed manipulator whom Justin can never satisfy. (And Daddy has a few secrets on the side.) Jack (Paul Bright, "Angora Ranch's" writer and director) is a gay widower who has a live-in father, Peter (Tim Jones, the movie's co-writer), that is trying to push "his gay son Jackson" into a relationship before he slips into total senility. A chance accident and a little of Peter's meddling drops Benny the Bunny squarely into the stew and a May/September romance begins in the suburbs of Austin, Texas.
While the movie is certainly not a slick affair (in the extras, Bright and Jones joke about how their budget was in "the thousands"), it does do several things the creators promise:
No tragic gay man dies of AIDS. No screaming queen is running around disrupting things. No men are just straight-acting guys claiming they're gay. And most importantly - All gay male characters are actually played by gay men.
The acting is not going to get any Academy Award nominations, but that isn't why you're going to enjoy this. "Angora Ranch" is a delight for the many things it isn't. Non-hyperactive, not bitter or angry, not political (other than the general wink at gay marriage) and not aimed at the tweaker circuit coming-out crowd. This is the kind of movie I am comfortable showing to friends with dinner, and, I am going to project, feel comfortable with repeat viewings.
And it's worth it just to see a rabbit yawn.
(For those of you who only buy "gay movies" based on skin content, Justin appears naked from the back and the two leads have a love scene from the waist up.)