Wild Tigers I Have Known

With all the good reviews and all, I couldn't believe how this movie alternated between irritating and boring.. If you are a fan of art house movies, or special effects, then you might like this movie. But if you are looking for a sympathetic look at the stirring of same sex intimacy among adolescent boys, this movie was big disappointment.

Too bad, because the basic plot had a lot of potential as a sweet coming of age story about an the confusion a young gay boy experiences with his first infatuation--the kind of puppy love we have all experienced at least once in our lives. 13 year old Logan is a clumsy nerd who has trouble fitting in with his classmates. Logan had sexual fantasies about his classmate, Rodeo, the school's wrestling hero. To Logan's surprise, he finds that he has more in common with Rodeo then he expected. Rodeo likes Logan's iconoclastic attitudes toward their boring junior high school social life, not to mention the fawning hero worship that Logan heaps on him. An unlikely friendship develops, and they begin to hang out together, taking walks in the woods and on the boardwalk.

The budding friendship ends when sexually confused Logan calls Rodeo on the phone claiming to be a girl called Leah. Not surprisingly, when Rodeo discovers that Leah is really Logan, he finds the deception too weird for him to bear. Word gets out about Logan and his world comes crashing down on him.

The movie did receive an award for special effects, but I found the special effects took up entirely too much of the movie. The lack of dialogue led me to wonder whether the filmmaker was making a special effects movie instead of romantic drama. There too many long, lingering shots of Logan's face. Several times I was tempted to fast forward through them until the next scene. What dialogue there was consisted of monosyllables, so there was very little character development, or any insight into why the boys were attracted to each other.

The only good part of the movie were the heartfelt performances of the 2 young actors--Malcolm Stumpf and Patrick White. Unfortunately, as good as they two boys were in their parts, they were not enough to save the movie from it's defects.

Adolescence is a tough time for any boy, but doubly so for someone who is coping with the realization that he is gay. "Wild Tigers I Have Known" (2006) successfully conveys this via the isolation, loneliness and despair of Logan, a 13 year old middle school student who is infatuated with one of the popular, athletic boys, Rodeo Walker. Logan not only dotes on the limited friendship Rodeo is willing to extend to the shy boy, but constantly daydreams about developing the relationship, making it obvious to his schoolmates who proceeds to taunt him unmercifully. Ultimately, Logan's obsession drives him to attempt a dangerous charade in hopes of conveying his feelings to the other boy.

This is a difficult film to watch, with many "artsy" touches and slow, confusing segues from reality to Logan's dream world, justified in trying to emulate the confused, seemingly pointless state of Logan's emotions. While Logan eventually learns to accept his feelings, the film remains mostly a depressing hodge-podge of conflict and fuzzy images of reality, not really the thing to brighten up the day of someone going through what Logan is experiencing. While it may be highly original, beautifully photographed and outstanding as an "art" film, my rating is based on the likely reaction of a regular viewer of gay-themed theatrical films, who would likely consider this just satisfactory overall. Three stars out of five.

All the wild tigers and all the Logans chasing thereafter. A soft,sweet dream of a movie,and brave. To approach the most important person in your life, in this case, Rodeo, and to climb that tender, delicate, so perishable ladder and say I love you, knowing giddily, so perfect, please.

And the bravery pays off--I still live, I am not destroyed--as Logan runs off into the world, knowing finally, he is of worth and immense value. The simplicity, the hard-won complexity, and the naceant knowledge that some day someone will phone Logan, full of fear, and Logan's gentle creamy voice will say back, don't worry, you are safe, relax.

One person's need for another human being in the wild tiger years of adolescence and faith in tomorrow, done in lovely cinematography and summery memory colors, a film of healing, a film of hope.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 30 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars