Fantastic!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I first saw this film on DVD I borrowed from a friend, I enjoyed it so much I had to buy it myself the very next day.Essentially a love-story with twists and turns, it's set in a Frat-house.(so I believe its called....I'm British and we don't have those..) A sort of student household I suppose we'd call it.The main lead is Griff, he's got a secret boyfriend, the other guys in the house don't realise he's gay, and then something happens which threatens his little secret...I admit I shed a few tears during the film especially towards the conclusion, it's quite moving for a romantic like me. Griff, played by dishy Daniel Chilson, and his sweet co-star Pete (Don Handfield) are very easy on the eye and make a nice couple. Some of the Frat Brothers' acting skills lean towards the naive, even clunky, but it all adds to the charm in the end.My DVD copy is PAL and appears to be digitally converted from an NTSC film scan, this gives slightly disappointing quality in the same vein as a UK 'Friends' disc, eg slightly blurred movement and soft focus.

Sometimes you just have to forgive all the faults and glitches and go with the flow. I liked this film in spite of its low-budget feel and empty moments, because there is a difference between profound emotion and cheap sentiment, and the script of Defying Gravity reflects the former. In spades.Another pitfall avoided by this writer and director is that of going over the top in caricaturing his leads or allowing the story to become preposterous. The parts dealing with college fraternity life are spot on, including subtexts. (I know this for a fact.) If anything, the more extreme moments of drama are underplayed rather than the opposite. So there is a little political correctness involved -- so what? The moment that Griff turns to Todd on that mountaintop and confesses his feelings for Pete, everything of lesser import in this story vanishes. What remains a mystery is how an actor like Daniel Chilson who shows such promise in this role did not go on to much greater accomplishment.The heart and soul of any straightforward love story is its reflection of the highest and best motivation humanly possible as regards one person's feelings for another. Everything base and immoral is swept aside in a tide of total devotion and deep introspection, hence the notion of defying gravity. I do not know whether this film was made for television or general release. I wish I had stumbled across it sooner. It is a simple, unsophisticated, unpretentious gem.

Griff's a frat boy. So is Pete. Griff and Pete are lovers. Griff still wants to be seen as straight; so does Pete, though Pete is on the verge of coming out. Griff doesn't like being pressured. But when Pete is injured in a gay bashing, Griff is forced to decide on which side of the fence he must ultimately stand. DEFYING GRAVITY is like one of those moralistic religious shows they used to show on Sunday mornings, mini-soap operas like "Insight" where average people found themselves facing difficult choices. Only in GRAVITY, religion is avoided and gay sex has been added. It is sincere. It is sweetly, naively philosophical in its morality. It is likable, but it is simplistic. It is about a man who wants to do the right thing, but has to muster up the moral courage to sacrifice his comfortable life in order to do it. DEFYING GRAVITY is vanilla, both sexually and dramatically. As Griff and Pete, Daniel Chilson and Don Handfield are boy-next-door handsome and kid brother cute. Their sex is PG rated. They are given a mutual best friend (Niklaus Lange) who is unmistakably straight to let us know that it is all right to be gay friendly. Griff's coming to terms with his sexuality is aided by a lesbian acquaintance (Linna Carter) who is black, to better identify being gay with being marginalized. It is all a bit too predictable.Yet, the film is sincere and it is well acted, especially by Chilson who underplays his part with the right amount of repressed, middle-class indecisiveness. And the film's most honest revelation is noting that most great changes in life come after slow deliberation and soul searching.DEFYING GRAVITY is feather weight, though it hardly defies gravity. But as it comfortably sets there taking up space, it is pleasant and inoffensive and delivers it message with utmost politeness. That may make it seem inconsequential, but since most gay films wallow in angry ranting or outrageous camp, GRAVITY's low-key thoughtfulness makes it a little bit different and a little bit special.

I rented the DVD and had high hopes after reading their blurb, but ultimately it was a let down. I have seen my share of gay films over the years, and I thought this one actually had an interesting story to tell, it just didn't tell it very well. Others here have decried the acting and rightly so.I found the whole thing right down to the gay bashing was very predictable and cliche. Even though the film is only about 90 minutes it felt much longer. It needed a better editing job and the script needed work. There just didn't seem to be a whole lot of depth to the characters. But I did like the str8 best friend character who finally gets Griff to do the right thing. But it seems to me that he could have gone to the cops and helped them out even without exposing himself to the the frat. If he really cared about Pete wouldn't he have done that sooner as the detective wondered?On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it a 5. But I liked the idea of the film better than its execution.