Late in the day gay-coming-of-age story: late for our mid-20s protagonist, late in a film cycle on the subject, and now nearly a decade after its release, but so well observed and acted, it hardly matters. We’re in Yorkshire, England (where writer/director Francis Lee is from), farm country where a young Josh O’Connor (his face not quite settled, other than those protruding ears) is running the small family sheep farm by default, and nearly by himself, as his father is invalided after a stroke and Mom busy running the house. He’s increasingly miserable, drunk most nights after pub visits where he’s up for shagging a local bar-mate as long as it doesn’t require more from him than the sheep get when he thrusts his arm up their bum as part of his farm duties. But a temp hire of a slightly older/far more mature Rumanian immigrant (Alec Secareanu) upsets his routine because the stranger is happy to get the work, preternaturally gifted with the animals, and an (unconscious?) object of lust self-denied. Met with unreasonable belligerence simply for being a good worker, the resentment explodes during an isolated spring lambing trip where a shove becomes a fight and the fight becomes a sort of mutual rape. (I know, an old cliché, but the sex for a change looks something like sex.) Naturally, the relationship doesn’t run smoothly (unspoken love at first fuck?), while an unexpectedly upbeat ending feels whipped up for drama and an easy exit. But the handsome locations and leads make it easy enough to accept.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Lots of misleading comparisons with BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN/’05 on this one. Instead, try MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE/’85, mostly for the evolving relationship between Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/11/my-beautiful-laindrette-1985.html
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