Big Eden

Harry is a middle aged, successful artist living in New York City. Harry just happens to be gay and single. He does not have luck in the love department. On the eve of his first big show, he learns that his only living relative - his grandfather - has had a stroke. Harry rushes to his side in the town where Harry grew up - Big Eden. (I don't remember being told where Big Eden is supposed to be, although in the extras the director divulged that it was shot in Montana). Big Eden is an itty bitty town in an absolutely idyllic setting. I am fully prepared to move to that town.

When Harry returns to his hometown, he is informed that the love of his life, Dean, has moved back to town, divorced and with his two sons in tow. Harry is somewhat devastated in that he didn't know that Dean had ever married or had kids. Harry has been burning a torch for Dean for about twenty years. Though the exact nature of their former relationship is never truly defined, we get a good idea of what it must have been - flirtation of youthful men who knew that they dared not cross a line and become physical.

Big Eden (the film) is a fantasy of sorts. It is set in a reality that exists just beyond our true vision - slightly beyond our peripheral. The characters are real and ....not. The town locals who seem to do nothing more than sit in and in front of the local store, are a cast of scruffy male characters without a judgmental or prejudiced bone in their body. Again, the director/writer Bezucha stated that he wanted to portray a life for a gay character where all the hurdles that homosexuals state exist - do not. And if those hurdles were removed, what would the gay man's life be like? Would it be carefree and happy and fulfilled? Probably more to the truth, as this films tells, it would still be rife with heartache and a bevy of other emotions, because in the end, we are all human and our lives are not meant to be simple and carefree - gay or straight.

Arye Gross is really quite believable, if not a bit too doe eyed at times as Harry. Eric Schweig, as "Pike," the Native American owner of the general store is really quite amazing in his portrayal.

What makes this movie truly amazing is that it doesn't answer the questions you want answered in a simple or laid out way. You have to glean from your own perspective some of the answers. It's an intelligent film with a heartwarming center and covered up in really excellent actors, who, sadly, you may or may not have ever heard of, but will surely recognize as you watch this film.

I am very thankful for a film about a middle aged gay man going through the same sort of "relationship" or "emotional" issues that I am at roughly the same age as me. I really enjoy the "coming of age" and "coming out" films that are currently out there, but I've long since passed that time of my life. I needed a film that addresses me as a middle aged gay man - without the hovering doom of AIDS as a component - and "Big Eden" is almost perfect in that respect. I have been, for some time, contemplating moving to a small town in New England or in the West - someplace where I could get to know my neighbors and become a part of the community - a community of real friends.

Ultimately, I think that is what "Big Eden" espouses. With a community of real, trusted, loving, and caring friends, you can't go wrong. Those friends don't neccessarily have to be of the same sexual orientation, gender, race, sex or political affiliation in order for you to be loving and loved.

You really have to watch this film. If there ever were a life affirming film of homosexuality past the age of 40, then this is it!