A drama of a different kind we live through the life of a young man who lives in isolation, where the young man is confined to the house for holidays but did not disclose a dangerous secret in his life. The young man struggles to reveal the harsh circumstances of his conservative family, telling his parents that he is infected with AIDS. That is the news that may change everything because the young man is still preoccupied with the struggle for which he lives among his family.
This profoundly resonant, smartly understated black-and-white film greatly benefits from more than 30 years worth of sociosexual perspective that reminds us how much has changed, yet how much else has not.
Writer-director Yen Tan, expanding a same-subject short film, takes his tale slowly, letting the drama breathe and the cast essay "being" rather than "acting".
It's a beautifully acted film. In the dark days of the epidemic it would surely have been impossible to make a drama so balanced, so compassionately attuned to everyone's feelings.
All the performances are very good (though one might ask why no one has a regional accent), with stage-trained Smith providing a center of quiet intensity.
