One of my all time favorites.

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Blistering performances.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I think the users here are world class pianist Richard Kennington (Paul Rhys) and his manager cum lover Joseph Mansourian (Allan Corduner) is seducing the handsome and talented Paul Porterfield (Kevin Bishop who also plays Jim Hawkins in Muppet Treasure Island) just to have sex with him.....But Joseph tells Richard that Paul uses them to gets what he wants (what a baloney)First of all Paul is not poor nor a hustler.....he uses his body to Richard because he loves him and idolize him and let Joseph gives him a blow job because he knows that he is Richard's manager in order to hear news about him......Paul even nick the picture of Richard that the latter gave to his managerWhat's wrong in achieving your ambitions?????Paul is still a teen ager and he let those two uses his body but doesn't accept payment and only want to be a world class pianist like Richard......Kevin Bishop is so wholesome that showing off his body and butt makes me smile.......flawless

If the story had been pared down to an examination of the central two characters, rather than lavished with grotesque, utterly implausible and terribly acted caricatures, then this film might have had some potential for being saved from itself. As it stands it has little.There is no great skill to being catty and negative, but seeing as Food of Love is, by its shoddiness and carelessness an open invitation to cattiness and negativity...Where to begin? Here are some criticisms: Amateurish, peculiarly dull, predictable, plodding, fraudulent, first-draft dialogue unshorn of the clichés by which any self respecting writer would be haunted, insensitive, prosaic, pedestrian and irritating. Acres of text could be written, if I had a little more energy, about the individual flaws (How about the accent of the piano teacher -- teetering on the brink of being new york Jewish in her first scene, definitely wispy and elderly Scots at the beginning of her second before being revealed, we assume when we learn her name, to be Russian, is used to deliver the sort of lines a piano teacher really *would* never say, reminding her student, for instance: "it's called the Well-tempered clavier not the ill-tempered clavier." The fact that such a dreadfully banal witticism was found funny enough, or perhaps enlightening enough to be included speaks volumes. Clearly no one with any serious interest in or knowledge of music could be bothered to turn up on the day that scene was filmed to ensure that they didn't put the first prelude from the 48 -- something a beginner might play, in the fingers of someone who is supposed to be a music student), with perhaps a few lines to note the strengths. The idea that a young sensitive gay pianist might be happy in the sexual or romantic clutches of leering, ugly, bald, rich, smug men who seem all to be in their fifties is to stretch the idea of a young man's rebellion far past its natural limit.No, I can't go on. I'm too furious that I paid money for it, on the recommendation of The Times, of all things, and must go and lie down; but before I do I will say this. Is this really what passes for an American art-house film? God help us all.

Here is the most apt example I've seen lately in which everything is just a bit off the mark. Although I'm not familiar with Leavitt's novel, I have read other pieces of his work and find it equally uneven. For example, his central theme here of music being the "food of love" (one of Shakepeare's most quoted lines) just never reaches a level of complete fulfillment within the context of this often pretentious and sappy melodrama. Although the original title ("The Page Turner") implies a subtle judgment that the main character is doomed to eternal mediocrity, and opening scenes of the film confirm that hint, "Paul" is nevertheless forced upon the audience as a worthy protagonist whose professional and personal fate is vitally important. That kind of maybe-he-is and maybe-he-isn't paradigm is plain confusing, and it shows. Plot weaknesses are also apparent throughout. Similarly, the very high production values of the movie are constantly being undercut by laughable presumptions that an American audience could ever accept British actors straining to sound correct in their roles within an obviously European setting being palmed off (sorry) as California. Or am I being too picky? Geraldine McEwan as a Czech (?) piano teacher sounds exactly like Robin Williams playing Mrs. Doubtfire. And Juliet Stevenson comes across as a sort of über-California caricature. Moreover, the background scenes of New York are clearly scissors-and-paste.Be that as it may, I give this one a 7 out of 10 for showing Barcelona as not only a fascinating place, but also as an excellent locale for making a movie.

When I saw the movie, I expected the ending to be sad, since most of the gay-themed movies I have seen ultimately ends in tragedy. I don't know WHY this has to happen, but, let's admit it, it does. So I wasn't surprised if none of the main characters end up happy. Content perhaps - but not happy.Anyway, the best thing about the movie was Juliet Stevenson! Her portrayal as the "hysterical" mother is quite good. And I believe Derek above mentioned the chemistry between Paul [kevin bishop] and Richard [paul rhys] - which is absolutely true. But again as he says and I shall reiterate, it was too short a thing! I am a helpless romantic and so I would rather they ended up together. But - alas!The movie is not slow paced it moves along just fine...the progress of Paul from an idealist to one who accepts the reality of the world he lives in is touching ... elements of 'what-if's' abound, the duplicity, the jealousies and the vindictiveness in human nature as well - and all of this lends to the tragic distortion of romance in the movie.The relationship between mother and son however is endowed with vibrancy and the final scene where she accepts her son's homosexuality is beautiful despite its figurative rendition in the discussion of Ganymede being the largest moon of Jupiter. If you are looking for a happy ending, watch something else. :)