Fresh and Exciting

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Bob and Rose is a terrific love story, full of humor, misunderstandings, sex, hurt, and love. Like most relationships. And it's a story that wraps you up in it; you root for this couple. You have to stay and find out what happens to them.This story was really ahead of its time. Just like true racial equality will come when race is no longer even a subject, sexual equality will come when people no longer use labels and just love who they love, period.Bob and Rose (as well as many of those around them) go through some confusion about their relationship because it doesn't fit the molds society has created. Their relationship would be much simpler if those molds didn't exist. But right now, they do exist.What does it mean that Bob has always been gay, but is now in love with a woman? What does it mean that Rose is in love with a man who has always been gay?It means they fell in love. That's all.Bob maintains that he is a gay man who just happened to fall in love with a woman. He hasn't become "un-gay" or "changed teams," he just fell in love. This reminds me of what another Russell T Davies character said several years later: when Ianto Jones of Torchwood tries to explain his love for Jack Harkness to his sister, she asks when he became gay; his reply is that "It's not all men. It's just him." He just happened to fall in love with another man.Would that the world let it be that easy. Hopefully one day it will be.Bob and Rose is a very good, very real love story. There are realistic conflicts and problems and the solutions are not always clear-cut. It is well worth your time to watch it. And you're going to wish it was longer.

Great writing. Stumbled into this cleaver story. Politically it was hard to view as a gay man but the great writing and solid plot made it enjoyable to watch. The premise that a politically identified Gay Man can find love with a woman seems far fetched. But this series story line, keeps you engaged and handles the topic intelligently and entertainingly. The various characters are well developed and believable. The plot has various ups and downs as you watch the series which are satisfying and well drawn. The actors portray the characters well although the English accents can be a little hard for an American ear.

I have watched all but the last episode of this series and really look forward to finding out how the the story pans out. The characters are fully believable and likeable -warts and all. Alan Davies is developing into a credible actor and has shed the lisp (?) and the overgrown-boy-image.Bob's mother (played by Penelope Wilton) is an absolute hoot and would drive any son to drink, gay or straight. A lovely, gentle series, funny but not shallow - it puts a smile on your face.

I saw this program at a screening at the NY Gay/Lesbian Film Festival. While Bob maintains that he's still gay even though he's fallen in love and lust with a woman, I seriously doubt that's a concept most people would grasp, let alone believe. Even the British press who covered this program generally called it a "gay man goes straight" show, which I gather is not what Davies had in mind.I didn't really buy what "Bob and Rose" is selling, but it was better written and acted than expected. What the show depicts may indeed occur once in a blue moon, but I was surprised that "Bob and Rose" painted a rather dreary picture of gay relationships (breakups, shagging in the alleyway) while turning the gay/straight relationship in to a complex, but finally positive and romantic experience. Double-standard, eh? And from a gay man like Davies, you'd expect better.Back in 1978, there was an American film called "A Different Story," about a gay man and a lesbian who wound up falling in love, getting married, and having a kid. "Bob & Rose" has been called "mold-breaking" in the U.K., but it's not that far from the older film in many ways.If someone really wanted to break a mold, they'd make a film about a straight male who finds himself attracted to a gay man, and finally falls in love with him. I wonder if audiences would embrace that scenario as readily as they do "Bob & Rose," or simply refuse to believe such things could happen, while more than willing to believe a gay man can "change?"