Many online reviews call this a period romance, and several reviewers on Mubi were disappointed with the predictably tragic gay denouement. I nearly quit viewing when the story moved to Rome.
But as it turns out, it’s a very intellectual movie about an academic profession. Not really an appropriate theme for the cinematic arts of drama, motion, and color - but it’s kinda cool to have the climax of a ninety minute film be a few well spoken lines written in the introduction of an academic monograph.
Once you appreciate that, all of the pieces fit together so nicely: from the opening monolog on the banks of a stream … to dad singing on the back porch…to the meeting of like minds in a Boston bar…to the invitation to join a Summer recording project….to etc etc.
Yes, there is some hot steamy sex with both genders, but the essential relationship is that of minds not bodies. If Lionel had not met David, he likely would have spent his life picking out tunes in a cabin. The truth of a folk song seemed to interest him a whole lot more than standing in front of an audience.
An important film personally for me - and perhaps for others who are forever enchanted by the aesthetic enthusiasms of their parent(s). No other pleasure is greater or deeper. That’s why I gave the film five stars … but I can understand how others might feel it’s a total dud.
BTW, some nice scenes with the young Ladyship. She was so cute, rich, and appealing, I really wanted Lionel to stay with her, but like Odysseus with Calypso, our hero’s destiny lay elsewhere. He had to go home
