My usual take on naturalism is that if I want to watch real life I don’t have to buy a movie ticket, but Ira Sachs employs the style so artfully in Keep the Lights On he won me over. I sometimes felt like I was in the scenes. Not the sex scenes—I only wished I was in those.
It’s important to get caught up in this love story. As an outside observer, even if you identify with Erik (Thure Lindhardt) it’s difficult to understand why he doesn’t give up on his on-again off-again relationship with Paul (Zachary Booth) from its beginning in 1998 to its end—or is it?—in 2007.
They meet on a phone sex line—pre-Craigslist and Grindr; are you feeling old for remembering?—where Erik spends too much time when he should be working on his documentary film about obscure pioneering queer filmmaker Avery Willard. (The DVD includes that documentary as an extra.) The first date goes well enough until Paul discourages a second by saying he has a girlfriend.
But they do continue to see each other, and Paul finally takes his other foot out of the closet, closing the door behind him, and moves in with Erik.
Erik’s already seen that Paul is a heavy crack user but doesn’t worry about it until it makes Paul behave irresponsibly—both at his job and at home. Paul freaks out over seeing Erik talking to another man on the street but starts staying out all night or all weekend himself without explanation.
Erik eventually stages an intervention that gets Paul to go to rehab, but his recovery doesn’t last long and Erik resumes his role as enabler.
Sachs errs in not showing enough of the good times Erik and Paul enjoy to justify the bad times Erik endures to stay with his difficult partner. He also underuses first-rate supporting actors Julianne Nicholson and Souleymane Sy Souvane.
We’re left to imagine how Erik supports himself as an independent filmmaker in Manhattan, and how the unreliable Paul keeps his job in the legal department of a publishing company, even with his secretary and Erik covering for him.
Whether you’re hoping they’ll make it as a couple or hoping Erik will come to his senses and cut his losses when there appears to be no hope for Paul, you can hardly watch Keep the Lights On without getting involved. It envelops you like emotional Imax.