Now on DVD: "The Perfect Son" tells a wonderful story about two brothers - one HIV-positive, the other not
Theo is starting all over again at 30: He actually wanted to become a writer, but instead has had a remarkable career as a junkie over the last ten years. Having just been released from his fourth rehab centre, he now decides to change his life once again.
And this time it could work. Because the first thing Theo has to do now is go to his father's funeral and meet his "perfect son" again: his brother Ryan. He's always a well-dressed, successful lawyer and doesn't particularly like Theo - and the feeling is mutual.
But the two surprise each other while they are putting Papa in the ground. In a roundabout way, Theo learns that behind Ryan's well-buttoned chest beats the heart of a gay man - and that of an HIV-positive man. He learns that there is no such thing as "perfect" and that you stop judging people once you really know them.
In turn, Ryan realises that his brother might be a decent person after all and asks his brother to help him with something that he can't do on his own and that completely changes their relationship.
Leonard Farlinger's "The Perfect Son" is a great little film that goes far beyond the usual banal ways in which a classic cinematic family story works.
Many films have already told the story of a person's personal development as a result of their HIV infection. But the way director and screenwriter Leonard Farlinger uses Ryan's Aids illness to inspire his main character Theo to learn about himself and his family is as cleverly plotted as you've ever seen.
His brother Ryan is one of the most coherent gay cinema characters of recent times and both leading actors know how to fill the unequal pair of brothers with the necessary soul to make the conflicts and the surprising finale believable.
The Canadian television production has not yet been shown in cinemas or on television in Germany, but is being released on DVD today. It's a film that's well worth buying because you'll want to watch it a second or third time.
(Paul Schulz)
"The Perfect Son", Canada 2001, Director: Leonard Farlinger, with Colm Feore, David Cubitt, Chandra West and others, cmv-laservision (OmU)
