Charlie (Christopher Schaap) was definitely born in the wrong decade. He is a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding the big love of his love with violins soaring in the background just like in the best old-fashioned Hollywood movies. Instead he is very unhappy about having to look for it in all the wrong places and only finding disappointment and heartbreak.
He is an openly gay New York student on the verge of his 21st birthday who is desperate to find a boyfriend so that he can finally ‘go all the way’. He confesses to Thomas (Adam Lee Brown) one of his best friends that he has ‘fooled around’ with just two boys to date, but they were never the ‘real thing’. He thinks that Ford (Frans Dam) the hot looking waiter that is serving the two of them lunch could be, and when the note that he leaves on a napkin with the tip results in a phone call, Charlie is over the moon. At least when he and Ford go on some dates he finally achieves one of his goals, but the older man is neither physically or emotionally available, so he loses both his virginity and breaks his heart.
Every time Charles goes home to visit his very supportive parents, they gently inquire if he has met anyone yet. This unwittingly depresses him further as they met at college and have lived happily ever after, and even his girl pals from high school are getting into serious relationships. The trouble is the reality of big city culture of crowded loud gay bars, or what is euphemistically called on-line dating but are really just hook up sites, just do not suit a 20 year old romantic like him, and his normally bubbly optimism is beginning to wan.
However this is anything but a sad sap story as Charlie is irrepressibly likable and one cannot help but warm to his unbridled desire to be swept off his feet. He is cute, highly intelligent, funny, sassy, and good looking to boot, and would be a great catch for the right man …..if only he could just find him.
This totally charming and vastly entertaining movie that takes us through all of young Charlie’s ups and downs with the men he does meet and tries to romance, is a sheer joy from start to finish. It is more remarkable because of the fact it is the work of its young star who also wrote and directed the film. Whether this is art reflecting life and what we are seeing is in fact Schaap’s own life story is unsure, however what we are very certain about that this is the work of an exceptionally wonderful talented filmmaker with this stunning debut feature. His is a refreshing new voice who also has an ability to turn out a movie with very high production values on what one can only assume was a micro-budget.
With all his references to films throughout his movie Schapp obviously has a real passion for cinema, which will serve him well, as we think the complement will soon reversed.
Labels: 2017, dramedy, romantic comedy
