While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This movie didn't seen very promising to me. But I started to watch (1 of my bunch movies to watch). In the beginning I didn't understand why they would do something to somebody you love so much. But at the end... I would do the same!!! I felt what the family and friends felt. You always think, it will never happens to me. but if you see this movie it comes very close to you, just like it happens to one of you family member. Fantastic acting and with a good casting crew... The movies of Thom Fitzgerald are not well know, but they should be... A well deserved 7 out of 10!!!greets, GameBelgium

Thom Fitzgerald has done a wonderful job directing this film. By twenty minutes into the movie I cared about the characters. There's nothing pretentious or annoying about this movie, however the ending shocked me totally. I was not prepared for the ending. I heard sniffles when the credits rolled and when I walked out on to the sidewalk after leaving the theatre I felt stunned. I had no idea that local actor Walter Borden was in the movie -- a definite added attraction. But I don't want to say who does a better job in acting than others as I totally believe the movie is superb just the way it is.This is a movie I would prefer to attend alone so no one will talk to me throughout the film. Without sounding like an owl, the ending shocked the pants off me. I thought I figured it out, but was w-a-y off. Thom Fitzgerald: take a bow.

The hardest thing about doing dramas about subject matters that have already been "Hollywood-ized" is making the audience connect in some special way with the characters - or something new to say. This is usually done through great dialogue and masterful acting. This movie had neither. As an avid movie goer, I hold certain performances as guidelines for judging another. And by far Tom Hank's performance in Philadelphia gripped me and forced emotion from me at all the right places. This film was dead (other than a good job by Olivia as his mother). Parker Posey was devoid of all emotion and the rest of the cast just read their lines like it was a first reading. The plot is also a little on the "yeah right" side - a cop trying to arrest friends of suicide victims. This film teetered on the edge of being a great AIDS story or a cop drama and ultimately failed. Definitely a movie of the week and not worth hard earned cash.

I was fortunate enough to see this film at the Sundance Film Festival, and while I was ostensibly in Park City for skiing, this film will stand out in my memory as the high point of the trip. Poignant, heartfelt, authentic, beautifully acted, outstanding direction, incredible script - I could go on...When the director of the film came out to address the audience before the screening, he commented about all the love that went into this film. This "touchy-feely" stuff tends to make me a bit uneasy, but in fact, every frame of this picture showed that love.This film is so utterly honest with it's subject - a gay man dying of AIDS, post 9/11 - that you wonder how a film like "Philadelphia" is still regarded in such high esteem. As a gay man, I felt "Philadelphia" was fraudulent - unreal - pure Hollywood sap. (I won't ever forget the scene when Hank's character, covered with KS lesions, is handed a newborn baby to cuddle. Yeah, that'd happen...)If you want the real thing, check out this amazing, wonderful film - we now just have to pray this masterpiece finds a distributor.The auditorium I saw this film in at Sundance probably held 1500 people. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.