Well Deserved Praise

Overrated

Awesome Movie

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

the story is just so real, the way that gay people in closet feel, the way they try to manage their life while trying to experience love and sex, questioning their identity while they know it (Laurent)...and the other character (Marc) a gay guy who knows what he wants and is so determined, and their efforts to beat the odds and stay with together...all of this is shown in a simple, real and fulfilling way. All of the characters feel so real and admirable, this wonderful movie is different from all the other ones at gay subject, every gay and gay parent MUST SEE IT.

Nice story. Well cast. And the love as a problem with different nuances but same essence. Not impressive, it is a movie about images and sense of freedom. Errors who must be the necessary gesture and relationships like spider web. With the two beautiful actors, the tall is easy. Usually French film with few drops of gay problems. Result - a work in which the feelings and expectations, fights and gray perceptions are human. It is only a small detail presence of a gay characters. In fact, the most important character is the mothers. Delicate mom of Laurent, for who the truth is a huge hole. The mother of Cedric for who his son is more than a public image. For each of one, the pain is same. Only difference - grow up of answer. But it is only a question of love intensity.

Laurent (a vibrant Cyrille Thouvenin) is a 23-year-old agricultural student in Lille (with a passion for poetry) who knows he's gay but lets his parents think he's straight and that his roommate Carole (a sweet Caroline Veyt) is his future wife. He's held in this bind by the fact that a gay cousin, Marc, who was like a brother to him, came out only to wind up dying rejected by his parents, an example of in-family homophobia that seems to have been all too well accepted by his own mother and father. Laurent has been on a downward spiral in school ever since Marc's death. Marc's parents are around at family parties, the mother a basket case on tranquilizers, the father stolid and still unforgiving. This angers Laurent, but the trouble is that his mom and dad, who run a pharmacy, are very dear to him. He loves his parents; he loves family; and he loves kids. But he's stuck in a charade. It's already hurting Carole, who's more than a little in love with him, though she knows full well about his sexuality.All this has to change when Laurent is attached as a trainee (stagère) to a nursery and lab run by the slightly older Cédric (sexy, soulful Stéphan Guérin-Tillié) and they fall in love.The more grown up and independent Cédric is impatient with Laurent's playing the "little hetero to mom and dad." When he came out to his mother Emma (Eva Darlan) 11 years earlier on the death of his dad, Cédric said she could "take it or leave it." Laurent's pretense is exploded from an unexpected source. The film takes us sympathetically through the pain of Laurent's parents and Emma's efforts to help.The special virtue of Just a Question of Love is its balance. If it's primarily from the point of view of Laurent, and secondarily Cédric, and takes pains (though it's joyful, not painful) to make their love real (without any explicit nudity or sex though, just passionate kissing), it's just as much about the parents' difficult journey toward understanding of their sons' sexuality.A beautiful gay coming-out-to-the-parents film that had an unusually high viewership and almost universally positive response when shown originally on French TV, this has meant a lot to a lot of gay men, especially young ones thinking about love and conflicts with parents and the kind of "intense love relationship such as I dream of having and regret not to have had up till now," as one young French blogger typically put it. In IMDb comments that rate it, it has gotten nothing but a 10/10: enough said? Splendid performances by everybody, especially Thouvenin, Guérin-Tillié, and Darlan; this is far more than a "TV movie" and like some of the best contemporary French films, manages to be both elegant and emotionally direct.With his looks and personality, Cyrille Thouvenin is irresistible in the film: he's always running and leaping, troubled, acting out, but also bursting with youthful energy and smiles. The restrained but warm Eva Darlan is also very memorable. This is the kind of film a gay man can watch over and over, with much pleasure and some tears. Doing so is also helping my French quite a bit.

This has to be one of the best films on gay love coming from France that I have ever seen. I am a French film aficionado and I was dismayed that as far as the story goes, there is rampant homophobia even in French families. But I guess we can't escape it no matter where we are or where we go in the world. I shouldn't have been angry at the disgust of some of the family members, even to the point of disowning their gay children! The father and uncle characters were irritating to say the least, but it's to be expected. This story is so real and hits home. The pain of coming out,or not is keenly felt by those of us who can identify with it. The performances were first class from the entire cast. Cyrille Thouvenin and Stephan Guerin Tillie were outstanding. One could almost believe they were lovers in real life. They were so natural and comfortable together. From beginning to end, I felt for both characters and sided with both on what they felt and feared. Especially Cyrille's character, Laurent. I wish we could get more gay love stories with substance. We need to see more positive stories on gay love and I hope that gay directors, producers and actors out there understand that. Most gay films tend to be negative and have the main characters die tragically, or the film is based entirely on homophobia and/or silly gay stereotypes. Even by gay producers/directors!! This is usually the case in "straight" mainstream films. We need more actors like Cyrille and Stephan to play roles with substance and be positive roles models. The film is in French with English subtitles. This is definitely a must see.