Big Eden (2000)

Henry Hart comes back to his sick grandpa into the fictional town Big Eden and finds love. It is a simple script but I like how it is done. On one part it is not 100% realistic. It is more of a gay utopia. A small town in Montana where everyone is not only gay accepting but doesn't even seem to care that anyone is gay, they just want them to be happy. This helped to make a gay romance movie that is different. It isn't about a coming out or worrying about homophobic neighbours. It is a simple romantic movie like they would do with a straight couple.I loved all the characters and how they presented them. The lady who tried to hook Henry up with women first but then got the idea and the whole town went on helping Pike to get with him. Including those cowboys sitting in his store all day doing nothing and yet making little moves to get him closer to Henry.And then some parts are more realistic than in other gay movies. The characters are normal men. Over 30 or even 40. Not models but looking like a normal guy. I think this formula of switching what is usually more realistic and more fiction in the common gay movies and creating something very different. This was a nice and a pretty sweet result.

I watched this movie based on the reviews here and elsewhere. What a disappointment. I thought I was watching a different movie than the one reviewed. The premise of the movie was encouraging, but the execution and the acting was just not believable. In fact at times it was laughable (unintentionally). The lead was just not believable nor likable - I couldn't get past the premise that he was being pursued by TWO men, not just because he wasn't traditionally 'cute', but there was NOTHING in his personality that made him attractive or appealing. In fact, he seemed to be uncomfortable being gay. Another problem I had was that the movie was filled with all these 'wacky' but lovable and understanding characters who became annoying (to me) since they were so over the top 'cutesy'. This movie tries to be a 'feel good' movie, but I couldn't get past the bad acting and unbelievable characters. The movie's soundtrack was the best thing (older Country).

(SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW ALTHOUGH NOTHING I SAY COULD SPOIL SOMETHING ALREADY SO ROTTEN...) The only reason I gave this film a 3 was because the lead actor actually does some interesting things on occasion...not particularly easy when the script is totally adolescent and unimaginative.In fact, that is the first problem with this film - the script. There is almost nothing in it that is even mildly believable...just to mention a few things: a) a rising New York artist goes home to Montana because his grandfather is ill. So far so good. But he sticks around and lets his career lie fallow for over six months? Get real.b) He paints one - ONE - picture in those 6 months, and it is so bad thatno-one could ever imagine that he is an up and coming artist with two of his works already supposedly in a famous museum. c) The Indian in the story is totally wooden...(sorry, I couldn't resist - and in fact it's true). At 35 years of age he hangs his head like a dog and keeps mumbling "I gotta be going" every time the lead actor shows up; This is the only way for the script to show that he is totally in love with the guy - and this after ONE dinner together in an entire 6 months and he just hangs around moping? Even a teenager would have more smarts than this. d) If the lead and his best friend were so hot for each other in their youth, why did the artist leave in the first place? Why didn't his best friend follow? Why did the best friend get married, and then divorced? It would have helped to have one flashback at least to show them in their teens - and let us know just what kind of relationship they actually had had. But everyone pussyfoots around without anything really grounding the situation.e) Everyone , I mean EVERYONE in this film is so supportive of gays that I'm surprised they didn't all just come out at some point in the film and admit that they are all really gays themselves. This is so far-fetched that it is an insult to the intelligence of the viewer... and this is supposed to be happening in MONTANA! Hell, even in New York or San Francisco there would be more bigots around than in this little town. No wonder it is called "Eden" - a town that, by the way, doesn't really exist (anyone surprised?)When you put it all together, it makes for a very poorly written, minimally acted, unimaginatively directed, heavy-handed "comedy" which might have worked if all the main characters were fifteen. At 35 and over it just doesn't work.The "comic" moments of the film are embarrassingly silly, the heartfelt moments mostly trite and repetitive, the ending is almost completely unbelievable - not to mention obvious and clichéd.The only real question I have is, why did ANYONB like this film? I guess it must be the younger crowd - so badly brought up on lame TV series and typical Hollywood fare that they just don't know any better. Just for one moment imagine this film done by Almodovar. It would have been hot, funny, inventive, provocative, outrageous and deep - everything this film is not. RIP

Here are few lines to share this wonderful film's songs. All is said. About the story, wonderful people who take care of each other, beauty of landscape : forest and mountains, and of course love, true love which comes from heart and soul, central thing of our life. Now just listen again to the songs and remember the scenes. "I'm a thousand miles from nowhere / Time don't matter to me / 'Coz I'm a thousand miles from nowhere / And there's no place I want to be / I got heartaches in my pocket / I got echoes in my head....." and the next, my favorite one "Welcome to my world, want you come on in / Miracles I guess still happen now and then / Step into my heart leave your cares behind / Welcome to my world, built with you in mind"...if you love it, so just end it :o)