One of the best films i have seen

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

I should have remembered that a movie which opens with a scene from Romeo and Juliet is not going to leave me feeling light and happy. Holding the Man lived up to the expectation.In the sphere of tragedy amidst love I choose to not watch or ready anymore. Too many people I've loved are now dead. I am now in the green room so to speak, although I hope my call to my final performance is years away. Nevertheless I my mind now includes the deceased names of people I've loved or at least liked but are no longer here in bodily form.Watching Holding the Man did not lighten that load any. Hell, it may have added some weight.That is what is damnable about this movie. It does not let up. It's trajectory of love finding its own level is frustrating at times but seems to be clear. Cupids arrow is direct and the love between these boys is direct. Parents get in the way but they find their way. That's great and leads me to think this will be a movie with a happy ending.Then the scene. Our first introduction to AIDS in the movie suddenly shifts the direction of what could have been a pleasant train ride. The train hit a switch which sends the train, John and Tim and us in a very different direction. A direction I wish it did not go.Do I sound like Debbie Downer? Let's just say that the movie is so well done that it carried me through several emotions (including the "Don't do that, you'll be discovered" sort of emotion). Then it rides into the tragedy that AIDS through into our lives. The inevitable, unfair, unjust crime of nature against humanity.Include the awful scene of John's memorial service where Tim sits in a row with everyone else, and where the priest expresses gratitude to Tim and another friend for being with John during his last few months.I could not help but want to stand in that church and scream at the priest, "F#% liar!" I really wish someone did. But that apparently did not happen.It did make me realize that religions such as Catholicism are still babies where the real world is concerned. As an institution its leadership are adults who refuse to grow up and deal with reality. Not to neglect when religious groups stand against evil in the world. But where sexuality is concerned so many religious remain children. They are incompetent to dealing with matters of sexuality.Don't know if or when I can watch this film again. It is just too painful to know that such beautiful, Heavenly blessed love between two boys who grow into men, who still love each other in ways that religious folks often can only fantasize about, were removed from this life so quickly and so easily.A beautiful, lovely movie. There were times when I was wondering where it was going. The length is a bit much. But for excellent story telling, using the power of film this movie deserves a rating of 10.

There are a lot of these gay author tells all/life story made into a movie films. They are popular at film festivals and win all kinds of awards there. I have yet to see a good one. I stopped watching this movie after about a half hour... so the film failed with me. I didn't care for either actor but especially not Ryan Corr (playing Tim Coragrave). 30 year olds playing teenagers usually doesn't work..and especially the way this thing was directed and acted. Tim Coragrave looks like some sort of mean queen (not that bad but almost) -- John Caleo (actor Craig Scott) is basically boring.Look there are certain parts of middle class growing up gay that I don't want to relive over and over or even see them in film except maybe briefly to set the stage... For one thing most of it was boring and the gay stuff humiliating. These are painful or embarrassing memories you want to mostly forget.This film should have been heavily edited. Also a more honest story would have helped ...Caleo as captain of the football team?--gay fantasy time here. The supporting actors especially Corgrave's parents were almost comically bad. So ho hum...Popular cliché ideas of glamorous lives (authors models etc..) make for mostly silly dull movies...Full of predictable icons heros and melodrama. Tim Corgrave becomes a writer(pseudointellectual fodder)...unfortunately a bad one I might add.I googled and this film unbelievably won all kinds of awards. Gay parts have become mainline any more so hopefully this sort of PC false accolade will stop.AVOID

Strong Powerful and Poignant. Full of authenticity and honesty. Finally a gay movie without the white wash or straight-wash narrative. Thank You... Based on a memoir by activist Timothy Conigrave, it's the tale of a 70s schoolboy romance that blossoms into a relationship and is torn apart by the advent of HIV in the 80s. There's genuine chemistry between the two leads – as well as sharp turns from a wonderful cast including Guy Pearce, Antony LaPaglia and Kerry Fox – and an unabashedly mainstream sensibility, transforming an intimate story into a grand romance. The director Neil Armfield created a perfectly played gay romance. I hope to see this nominated at next years Oscars

Ryan Corr (Tim Conigrave) and Ryan Stott (John Caleo) give truly magnificent performances in this film, never understating or overstating their characters. Having worked in the HIV/AIDS sector in Victorian and Queensland from the early 90s through to 2008 I was somewhat skeptical about this movie and its ability to depict a horrible period in the HIV epidemic while remaining true to the love story between Tim and John. Once I saw the movie my skepticism was unfounded.The book "Holding the Man" is not a great work, however it does provide an insight into the discrimination that gay men experienced because of their sexuality and the horror of the emergence of the HIV/AIDS virus in the gay community. The movie is similar and faithful to the narrative. When I started working in HIV/AIDS prevention in the early 90s I met Tim Conigrave a few times. My sense of him was that he was brash, political and took no prisoners. Ryan Corr achieves all of this and more. And the movie leaves nothing to the imagination from the adventurous sex in saunas through to the illnesses of AIDs and John's prolonged and ugly death due to the virus. I'd forgotten how dreadful the impact of HIV/AIDS was on those during that time. The film brought it all flooding back from the countless pills to be taken, the salvage treatment and surgery to the tragedy of those gay men who died. Performances by the supporting cast such as Anthony La Paglia, Kerry Fox, Guy Pearce and Camillah Ah Kin as the parents of Tim and John are convincing and at times moving. The performances of the rest of the co-students and friends are delightful. Catch it before it finishes screening, you won't be disappointed.