User Reviews

A friend of mine got me to see this film. He said he was worried that I would find this film sad. Actually, I didn't find the film itself sad. I found the film to be boring, badly acted, and not very cohesive. What's sad is that a film with a great story idea fails to deliver.

Problem #1: the lead character, Tim, the one that wants to take the pill to be straight. Tim is a self-loathing gay man in the beginning, middle, and end of the film. He has a decent job, some devoted friends, and an unrequited crush on a new guy (Matt) with questionable sexual orientation. When Matt brings a bigoted female companion to Tim's B'day party, upsetting Tim, Tim announces that he's going along with the procedure, his friends are horrified (can you blame them?), he takes the pill, and...what happens? He hits on his female co-worker then coldly ditches her. He hits on a woman at a café. He starts dating a blonde chick. He rebuffs his old friends and co-workers. One friend attempts suicide because of Tim's rejection. Meanwhile, he's still self-loathing and still has gay mannerisms. So basically, this pill just gets you to sleep with women and become cold and heartless, but you still retain the self-loathing gay mannerisms you had to begin with. And along the way, he pops more and more of these pills (he's suppose to take, I believe, one a day) and by the end of the film, he loses all sexual arousal for both sexes, and the doctors that got him in this mess in the first place don't know why it happened, how long it will last, will it be permanent, etc. We haven't found a cure for cancer or AIDS, but these docs found a way to make gays straight temporarily and get them to lose their arousal for both sexes along the way. So much for a miracle pill. Tim should've taken a personality pill. There's nothing likable nor sympathetic about Tim at all. Instead of feeling sad for Tim, you feel like he got what he deserved for becoming an human guinea pig.

Problem #2: The unrequited crush, Matt. In the beginning, his orientation is a big question mark. He brings a girlfriend to Tim's party, upsetting Tim and inspiring him to take the pills in the first place. Along the way, Matt asks another co-worker Joey why Joey acts "like that" (out and proud). A gay man would never, ever ask such a question to another gay man. At the end when Matt kisses Tim, it felt so forced. Did Matt all of a sudden take a gay pill? Throughout the film, you never got the sense that Matt was gay at all. The end felt tacked on at the last minute, as if to give Tim what he always wanted but now can't get.

In a nutshell, I'll take a Jagged Little Pill over a Hard Pill any day.

If there was a pill that would change gays into straight, would you take it? If so, what would the effects be? Those are two of the pertinent questions in the excellent sci-fi flic Hard Pill. Tim (Jonathan Slavin) is a sad little cubicle monkey. His personal life is a disaster. He pines for guys he doesn't seem to have a chance with, mostly because they are straight or straight- ish anyway. This is a point made clear by his coworker Joey (Scotch Ellis Loring) when he says that Tim has "a sea of fags at his disposal and he stays home with a straight man." Nowhere is Tim's social life more depressing than when he practically begs his straight friend Don (Mike Begovich) to let Tim fellate him ("Can't we ever just watch a movie?" Don asks?). As Tim's personal life is defined each of the cast is introduced with a graphic that works as a spectrum of sexuality. It's an interesting and clever idea to show the shades of gay and straight in each character though it wears out its welcome a bit by the time the entire cast is introduced.

The film uses "street interviews" with various folks to introduce a new controversy involving a pill intended to provide an opportunity for homosexuals to go hetero by making a chemical change in the brain. One of the best one-liners in the film has a Christian fundamentalist making a selectively supportive comment about the drug. With Tim feeling that, "The only currency in the gay world is being attractive," he signs up for the human trials for the drug. What Tim doesn't seem to realize is that each of his friends and neighbors has problems as bad or worse than his own, they just have ways to deal. Sally (Susan Slome) covets Tim but continues an unfulfilled flirtation with a coworker. Joey throws his balls between more legs than the Harlem Globetrotters but he lacks an emotionally satisfying relationship. Don's relationship is contingent on his continuing use of antidepressants. It's to the credit of writer/director John Baumgartner that these subplots are so well developed without sacrificing the central story or adding superfluity.

When Tim begins using the pill it's not just his world that changes. Each person has a place they fill in others' lives and when one tries to change something so fundamental to their own self it goes without saying that there be effects on their relationships with others. The film's major success is in exploring these results. After a first straight screw that he apparently regrets, Tim finds himself attracted to Tanya (Jennifer Elise Cox) with results transcending the chemically dependent nature of their mutual attraction. Slavin's excellent performance makes Tim a sympathetic anti-hero. Despite Tim's consistent aversion to sensible solutions for his problems, one can't help but root for him to succeed, even if it's the result decidedly unsympathetic actions on his part.

Baumgartner's superb story offers a lot to viewers beyond just the visual story and fine performances from the cast. Musings about the effects of chemical personalities are as relevant to the real world as they are in Hard Pill speculative Los Angeles. The gradation of sexuality is a path rarely explored but it's done well here with the help of not only a graphic, but a healthy dose of remarkably non-exploitive skin. Throw in a brief yet profound argument for gay marriage and you've got yourself one hell of a movie. Enjoy.

The premise was intriguing and I think I thought it was a documentary but unfortunately it wasn't.

What if gay men had the medical intervention, through an anti-depressant like pill to change their orientation from gay to straight? Would it be a morally acceptable choice? Is it realistic to think a lot of gay men feel isolated and disconnected from the mainstream gay culture and its limited offerings? The thing followed this "every gay" man through the emptiness of the gay male lifestyle and asks the question is it, or should it, be a viable choice (if it ever exists). It is interesting how it sets up this average to plain guy who just says "i don't fit into this gay framework" so screw it.

Think about it: If you aren't white, hot,musclebound, hiv-neg, well off, popular, trendy where exactly do you fit in the gay male org chart? The problem is once the gay guy changes to "str8," the actor (which is stretching it more like the gay guy they hired) is not credible as a straight guy. There is no believable transformation, emotional shift-nothing. He is just the same.

The movie can't move past his interesting premise and looks like it was cast with the directors old friends from hs drama club. No story or background and it seems all the characters conveniently work together..this is not a b movie its not even public access cable ready.

The acting is beyond horrible..

When the guy truns str8 he inexplicably starts kissing his grossly overweight fag hag friend. A poor choice dramatically and aesthetically-its basically a choice a gay man would make to have some sense of normalcy.

This is when I shut off the DVD. SO sad that such a promising concept could be so poorly executed.

This movie was a free Logo offering on my Comcast On-Demand that I happened to pick at random. What a lucky choice I made. It's hard for me to convey concisely how this movie moved me. As another commenter mentioned, it is a low-budget type film but that makes this even more powerful and poignant. What is great about this film is that it pulls no punches and lays its messages out on the line. The main character is a plain but still attractive guy that is often at the mercy of the vanity and cruelty of the gay world. This movie blows the lid off the Will & Jack stereotype that all gay guys are nice, fun, and cute - the reality for many guys like myself is not always so pleasant. The main character constantly falls for the wrong (straight/confused) guys that often use him intentionally or not. It is this frustration and unhappiness that drives him to consider taking a pill that allegedly will make him straight. The great thing about this film is that none of the characters are portrayed as perfect - they're portrayed as human.

A gay guy who has experienced rejection and ridicule by "his own kind" must see this movie as an epiphany of sorts. Even better, someone who may have a distorted picture of what the "gay lifestyle" is should see this movie - this IS the reality for the average gay guy. We're not all depressed like this but it blows the lid off stereotypes like nothing I've ever seen. Please, please see this jewel of a movie.

Caught this film on cable TV by chance and, by waiting through the first thirty minutes for something interesting to develop, enjoyed it thoroughly.

At first glance or upon first contemplating the underlying notion that Tim's angst was perhaps the result of some sort of malady for which there was a "cure," the unsuspecting viewer is drawn into a plot that seems thin but then becomes increasingly complex as new characters enter on the scene. What holds this together so well are clever asides in which one is clued into what's really happening or what the characters are really thinking. While that device may seem trite or forced in other films, it works well in this one.

What I liked best about this "hard pill" was how believable seemingly oddball characters could be rendered without much bitterness or conflict, yet how engaging the plot could be -- wondering all the while how things would turn out. The ending was maybe a little too predictable based on early adumbration, but fine acting from a cast of virtual unknowns carries the day.

I suppose there is no need to label these comments as containing a true "spoiler," but I need to mention that one leaves this movie with a feeling that everyone received their just deserts.

No dessert needed.