Just out., March 17, 1995, Page 27, Image 27

j u s t o u t ▼ m a rch 1 7 . 1 0 0 5 ▼ 2 7
A F amily P icture
There’s kissing and cuddling between gay characters in
The Sum of Us, but the most tangible love portrayed
is between father and son
T
by Steve Warren
T
he Sum o f Us is a gay-positive family
comedy, in the tradition of The Wed­
ding Banquet and Doha Herlinda and
Her Son, with the potential to reach a
broader audience because it’s in En­
glish—or at least Australian.
Although it deals with more kinds of love than
the Greeks had words for, the primary focus is on
a father and his gay son. Harry Mitchell (Jack
Thompson, who is maturing into the Aussie Spen-
inetti a
Jeff being honest with me. Not that he had much of
a choice,” when he was caught in flagrante with
another boy at the age of 14. Dad read gay maga­
zines and went pub crawling with Jeff to under­
stand his lifestyle. “I never did it, of course,” Harry
says. “Never wanted to.”
While Harry is disappointed that his son can’t
repeat his life—“If he can’t have [what I had], I
want him to have as much as he can”—he empha­
sizes that he’s never been ashamed of Jeff: “How
could I be ashamed of what my seed’s become? Of
what my love’s become?... Our children are only
the sum of us, what we add up to— our parents and
grandparents, all previous generations.”
If that were all there was to The Sum o f Us it
would add up to a perfectly pleasant picture that
should be seen by all queers and most of our
families and friends, but there’s something else
that elevates it to the “special” category.
Running throughout the story in grainy, black-
and-white home-movie fashion are reminiscences
of Harry’s mother (Mitch Mathews) and her lover
cer Tracy), “the best dad in the world,” is a wid­
ower who couldn’t be more supportive of Jeff
(Russell Crowe of The Quick and the Dead), a 24-
year-old plumber who’s “a good, honest lad with a
heart as big as Western Australia.”
The script, adapted by David Stevens from his
play, gets into such subtleties—as both men search
for love, which Harry calls “the
greatest adventure in the
world”—as the hesitant lust one
feels toward the person who may
be more than just a trick and the
measured affection one offers a
potential replacement for the
great love of one’s life.
However the play was struc­
tured, the film is clearly in three
“acts.” The first shows how it’s
possible for a parent to be too
accepting. The first time Jeff
brings home Greg (John Poison),
a gardener whose parents still
don’t know he’s gay, Harry scares
Greg off with an effusive recep­
tion and a lecture on safe sex. He
also makes Jeff, who is convinc­
ingly awkward in his efforts to
get to know his date, seem bland
by comparison.
Jeff and Greg have “said g’day
a few times” prior to this first
date, but Harry’s intrusion makes
things “far too domestic” to feel John Poison (left) and Russell Crowe
sexy to the more repressed Greg,
who says, “Bringing your boyfriend home and not
Mary (Julie Herbert). Both men have strong memo­
ries of the old women. Jeff recalls seeing them
having to lie and pretend...I can’t hack it.”
cuddling in bed together when he was eight or nine:
The second act is more about Harry, who, “sick
“It just looked natural, somehow the most natural
of living in sin with my own right hand,” has met
Joyce (Deborah Kennedy), an eligible divorcee,
thing I’ve never seen.” His father was impressed
by how great the women’s love must have been to
through a dating service. As close as father and son
make them “willing to risk everything” in less
are, it is odd that he keeps her a secret from Jeff for
accepting times.
as long as he does; and as proud as he is about his
The scene in which the two women are forcibly
son, it’s strange that Harry is afraid to tell Joyce
separated after becoming too old to care for them­
that Jeffs gay. But without secrets there would be
selves or each other is one of the most heart-
no revelations and, hence, no drama.
wrenching ever committed to celluloid. I still can’t
Much of the drama comes from a stroke that
think of it without getting choked up.
Harry suffers at the end of the second act, which
Co-director credit is shared by Kevin Dowling,
leaves him paralyzed in the third, with Jeff as his
of the United States, who directed the play off-
caretaker. This doesn’t prevent Harry from speak­
Broadway, and Geoff Burton, the film’s cinema­
ing in asides to the audience—a theatrical touch
tographer, who captures many faces of the city of
agreeably retained—and, in a ’90s reversal on an
Sydney in opening the play up for the screen,
’80s theme, he confides that he had thought that
without sacrificing intimacy.
Jeff would get AIDS and that he would have to look
That intimacy doesn’t extend to onscreen sex.
after him.
There’s more kissing and cuddling between gay
A few details may be intended to make the film
characters than straight, but, ultimately, the most
more palatable for straight audiences. Jeff and
tangible love shown is between father and son.
Greg are both “straight appearing” with an interest
Perhaps that will promote healing in some families
in sports—Jeff plays football, Greg swims. Jeff
for whom it’s not too late.
has had sex with women—“I like women, [but] I
like doing it with blokes”—and is opposed to
ghettoization. He rejects the idea of going to San
The Sum of Us opens Friday, March 31,
Francisco on holiday: “I don’t want to live in a
at
K01N Center Cinemas. Call 225-5555,
world that begins and ends with being gay.”
ext. 4608, fo r show times and prices.
Harry says he “was always very grateful about
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