For his feature film debut which he wrote, directed and starred in, Canadian filmmaker James Fanizza chose a feel-good romance which may not exactly be Shakespeare (!) but however it is the stuff that hopelessly romantic gay men just love.
Set in his native Toronto, Fanizza plays Alex a frustrated artist who is making ends meet working in a local coffee shop, and he cannot be doing too badly either, as he has a rather lovely trendy apartment to live in. The story starts with Alex bidding farewell to his Argentinian/Canadian boyfriend Nelson (Guifre Bantjes-Rafols) who is going away on business for a week. As a parting gesture Nelson asks Alex if he would consider showing his cousin around town as he is visiting before he returns to Argentina now that his studies in the US are finished.
Any thought of turning down the request are quickly dismissed the moment Alex catches sight of the hunky Sebastian (Alex House). They make no plans to meet up but they just happen to bump into each other later that night (its the movies after all) and its instantly clear there is a sexual chemistry between the two of them, and maybe even more.
They naturally end up in bed together whilst Sebastian is protesting loudly that in his culture one just doesn’t steal one’s cousin’ boyfriend, and Alex says that’s also same in the US. Despite Alex’s commitment phobia which we learn of very quickly, the two still spend the whole next day together staring to each other’s eyes like lovelorn puppies.
Of course with only a week at their disposal they still have to fight so they can make up again, and give Sebastian a chance to lecture Alex about getting over his traumatic past and start building a future for himself. Then Nelson having not been able to reach Alex on the phone, returns home without warning and catching a naked Sebastian in Alex’s shower has a hissy fit, but it is too little and too late.
We should also mention that Alex’s best friend Xenia is a drag queen played by Brian McCook better known as Katya
What really lifts this wee drama is that both lead actors spin their charm on themselves and us that has happily us being maybe less critical than usual, and instead totally invested in the outcome of their story. No spoilers here, but the final twist is cute and works very well.
