This one has a good setup and two appealing leads, but it goes to absurd lengths to keep them apart after establishing them as soulmates. The comic complications that come between them aren’t funny and the Big Lie that causes such drama over a breach of trust is no big deal.
Nicholas Downs stars as Blaine, an Everygay who’s looking for love. He writes a column about his search in USA ToGay, which leads us to expect a gay, West Coast version of Sex and the City. Well, Blaine doesn’t have as many friends as Carrie Bradshaw. He only has one, Michelle (Michelle Laurent), who forgets to tell him she doesn’t appreciate him calling in the middle of the night.
Blaine also has a roommate, Cameron (Adam Huss), who seems to be having all the sex in the city of Los Angeles. He’s a dim-witted hunk who dances in a bar. “My brains and your looks—a dangerous combination,” Blaine tells him jokingly, before the idea becomes serious. Blaine, you see, is cursed with “being average in a world of physical perfection.”
He makes an Internet connection that leads to a six-hour phone conversation with Xander (David Loren), “just some hick from Texas” who said online he had just moved to L.A. and was looking for friends, but says on the phone he’s been renting a room for six months from Ernie (Bruce Gray), a sweet, campy, lonely old man. So much for strict honesty. After another conversation the next night they agree to meet.
Somehow because Cam’s been using Blaine’s computer his photo winds up on Blaine’s profile and Xander sees it before Blaine realizes it. Despite the strong bond they’ve formed he thinks Xander is shallow enough to lose interest if he doesn’t match the picture. He begs Cam to come along to the first meeting and pretend to be him, even offering to pay him to do so. Cam shows his class and intelligence by replying with the classic line, “I’m an actor. I don’t pretend to be someone else for money.”
It gets stupider from there. After all those hours on the phone Xander doesn’t recognize Blaine’s voice or not recognize Cameron’s. After a two-minute conversation Blaine goes to get coffee and Xander leaves before he gets back. There are several more instances of perfect bad timing before the truth comes out and the agita overflows.
I don’t recall seeing Downs before but he looks very familiar. Maybe he reminds me of Keanu Reeves in his Bill & Ted days, or maybe he’s just perfectly cast as the average guy we overlook in our search for perfection. Loren doesn’t have much chemistry with him but if you buy the premise you’ll root for the characters to get together in spite of the actors.
Writer-director JC Calciano is correct in his message about settling for the right guy, even if he’s not everything we’ve been looking for; but he shouldn’t expect us to settle for subpar writing that drags a potentially wonderful gay date film down to a passably entertaining level.