This film engages its audience not only through its loaded theatrical dialogue, where every line delivered is a subtle new insight into the character speaking it, but also because of the poignantly-treated themes designated by the title: Love! Valour! Compassion! The intertwining relationships of eight gay men who retreat together to a summer house three times during the season illustrate their individual character quirks as well as their collective trials, such as the HIV virus that infects two of them.
Love between various pairs in the film emerges as both an animal, lustful act that may transpire in a dark and frenzied moment, and as a more tender and fundamentally human interaction that takes years to cultivate. Valour rears its intrepid head in the characters who deal most intimately with the virus, struggling to live gracefully even in the face of a painful and prolonged death. Compassion repairs each man's petty differences with another, and binds these eight weary travelers together as they quietly help each other through difficult times until the end of the film.
Performances in Love! Valour! Compassion! are generally well done, from John Glover's dual turn as the stiff, spiteful John and his dying and unconditionally loved twin brother James, to Jason Alexander's nuanced role as a flamboyant HIV sufferer doing his best to cope with the disease. The often heartbreaking script is tempered by the alternately caustic and self-effacing humor inherent in a meeting of several strong gay personalities for extended periods of time. Visually, some scenes appear stagey, especially within the darkened summer house, but otherwise the play seems to have made a thematically successful and emotionally effective translation to the screen.
Love between various pairs in the film emerges as both an animal, lustful act that may transpire in a dark and frenzied moment, and as a more tender and fundamentally human interaction that takes years to cultivate. Valour rears its intrepid head in the characters who deal most intimately with the virus, struggling to live gracefully even in the face of a painful and prolonged death. Compassion repairs each man's petty differences with another, and binds these eight weary travelers together as they quietly help each other through difficult times until the end of the film.
Performances in Love! Valour! Compassion! are generally well done, from John Glover's dual turn as the stiff, spiteful John and his dying and unconditionally loved twin brother James, to Jason Alexander's nuanced role as a flamboyant HIV sufferer doing his best to cope with the disease. The often heartbreaking script is tempered by the alternately caustic and self-effacing humor inherent in a meeting of several strong gay personalities for extended periods of time. Visually, some scenes appear stagey, especially within the darkened summer house, but otherwise the play seems to have made a thematically successful and emotionally effective translation to the screen.