Cast: Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain, Stacey Hart, Kate McEnery, Patrick Nielsen, Tim Harris, Jacquetta May, David Lumsden
Director: Simon Shore
Producer: Stephen Taylor
Screenplay: Patrick Wilde, based on his play "What's Wrong with Angry?"
Cinematography: Alan Almond
Music: John Lunn
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Classics
Over the past few years, the number of movies pertaining to teen life have multiplied at an alarming rate. With such a crowded field, one might suspect that there's little a film maker can do to find a fresh spin. Indeed, Simon Shore's debut feature, Get Real, contains numerous familiar elements: high school cliques, a big dance, and sexual angst. But there are two twists that keep us from filing this in the "been there, done that" category: Shore's movie takes place in England and the protagonist is a 16-year old, still-in-the-closet gay boy.
To his credit, Shore not only avoids making another in a long line of cookie cutter teen movies, he also misses most of the pitfalls associated with gay coming of age stories. Get Real is not populated by a gallery of homosexual and homophobic stock characters, and the screenplay doesn't vacillate between sermonizing and melodrama. Things get a little sudsy towards the end, when the director falls prey to the "let's make a speech" syndrome, but, for the most part, Get Real remains true to its title, and may remind some viewers of Gillies MacKinnon's keenly-observed Beautiful Thing.
Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is a classic nerd. The only time he is noticed by the popular kids at school is when they go out of their way to taunt him. His few friends are misfits like him - Linda (Charlotte Brittain), his large, vivacious next door neighbor, and Mark (Patrick Nielsen), a chum since childhood who pines after one of the school's most attractive and outspoken girls. Only Linda knows that Steven is gay - everyone else thinks he's "normal," although, ironically, they tease him about being "queer." In order to satisfy his sexual needs, Steven has a habit of hanging outside the men's room at a local park, waiting for older guys to pick him up. One day, while anticipating a rendezvous, Steven runs into one of the most popular guys at school, John Dixon (Brad Gorton), a track star. Both boys are embarrassed by the encounter, but the chemistry between them cannot be denied, and, after a school dance at which both of them spend the evening staring into each other's eyes while dancing with girls, they end up in bed together.
The key to Get Real's success is that the characters are carefully developed and their emotional difficulties are not trivialized. Steven is comfortable with his homosexuality (he has known about it since he was 11), but, even for someone who's not a member of the "in" crowd, the price of coming out is almost too daunting to overcome. Steven's parents don't know, and he worries that they might not understand. Indeed, his father, who dresses in Doctor Who costumes and plays with toy Daleks, is not the picture of a mature, well-adjusted individual. But, if it's bad for Steven, it's far worse for John, who is one of the most popular guys at school. Being friendly with Steven does enough damage to his reputation; it would be a catastrophe if the truth was revealed. Much of Get Real deals with the gradual, difficult process of John accepting his own sexual identity, then wrestling to keep it hidden from everyone else. Even those who suspect the truth look beyond the obvious for another explanation.
One of the more touching subplots in Get Real concerns a young girl, Jessica (Stacey Hart), who, fresh from a psychologically abusive relationship, falls for Steven after he takes the time to sit with her and listen to her troubles. Although at first oblivious to Jessie's intentions, once Steven figures out where things are headed, he reacts in a believable fashion. There are no big scenes or histrionics. Indeed, at least until the finale, Get Real remains low-key, relying on smart dialogue, well-developed characters, and believable plot turns to keep things moving. The film's lone obvious weakness is that screenwriter Patrick Wilde, adapting from his play "What's Wrong with Angry?", can't resolve the various strands of the story without resorting to an overused device.
Solid performances abound. Ben Silverstone does a good job presenting Steven as a nerd with a core of self-confidence. Likewise, Brad Gorton shows us the desperate, uncertain side of John, a boy who appears to his peers as the epitome of poise. Charlotte Brittain provides a fresh, lively presence as Linda, and Stacey Hart's Jessica has surprising depth for a secondary character. The only real stereotype is Tim Harris' Kevin, who fulfills the role of school bully. Kevin has a key part, however - not only is he Steven's chief tormentor and Jessica's ex-boyfriend, but he provokes one of Get Real's most uncomfortable scenes.
When stacked alongside movies like She's All That and The Rage: Carrie 2, Hollywood's contribution to the teen misfit genre, the strength of Get Real becomes obvious. It doesn't have the slick, manufactured, condescending style. The characters aren't sanitized, recycled versions of the boys and girls who sauntered through John Hughes films fifteen years ago. Instead, in Steven, John, and their friends, Shore gives us individuals worth caring about in situations we can all relate to, regardless of our sexual orientation.
© 1999 James Berardinelli