"God's Own Country" is a British English-language film, very new from this year (2017), and it is the first full feature film effort by writer and director Francis Lee. For most of the cast members, this is probably also their most known work at this point, including lead actor O'Connor and his co-lead Secareanu playing gay farm workers on the estate of the former character's father. O'Connor's character is definitely at the very center of this award-winning movie and it is his story from start to finish. Also a mention to Jones and especially Hart who are doing a pretty good job here. You could guess initially that Hart's character's second stroke was a reaction to finding out about his son's homosexuality, but you would be wrong as you see at the end. It sure does not say anything positive about the protagonist's intelligence if he thought he could never tell Martin and Deidre. Anyway, the one thing I liked was really that from the moment he meets his love interest, there is definite change to see for the rest of the film to Johnny. How his anger and frustration become less and less and hope and longing for happiness take their place.
But there are also some definite weaknesses in here, namely most of all the generic very basic order of conflict. I always find it somewhat cringeworthy when near the end major conflict arises and needs to be solved as in this film with the example of the cheating and of course there is not only the protagonist's former friend around, but also another gay and of course they have sex regardless of how much he loves Gheorghe. And then the expected "feel-good-for-the-sake-of-it" conclusion at the very end was pretty bad too. Maybe not for audience's sakes, but for storytelling sakes. Oh well, actually for audience's sakes too if they want to see a good movie and not just fake happiness and closure. Really hurts in terms of the authenticity and as this is one of the film's key components to show us a rough but real world, it makes things even worse. They destroyed a lot in these final 20-25 minutes that they constructed so well before that. A bit of a shame. I think the scenes with the cows, calves, sheep and lambs were all handled very well too I must say and judging from the audible reactions, especially those from the female audience members, people liked them.
The film's biggest strength is certainly that it won't go for cheap thrills in terms of homophobia. The characters' sexual preferences are never judged negatively by the supporting characters, even if they sometimes fear they would be. And this area is a huge problem in many gay-themed (short) films. But Lee never made this issue crucial in his work here and with that he made the perfect decision. The film is never defined by the characters' homosexuality, but it is defining as a character study about illness, desperation, family, work, love, hope and many other components. Eventually I will be a bit generous here as it is a close call if this one gets a thumbs-up or thumbs-down from me, but I give the edge to the positive. Still I must say that the awards attention is definitely over the top and you should not expect any kind of greatness when checking this one out because otherwise you will be pretty disappointed and not able to see this film for what it is: a solid love story and an even better family story.
But there are also some definite weaknesses in here, namely most of all the generic very basic order of conflict. I always find it somewhat cringeworthy when near the end major conflict arises and needs to be solved as in this film with the example of the cheating and of course there is not only the protagonist's former friend around, but also another gay and of course they have sex regardless of how much he loves Gheorghe. And then the expected "feel-good-for-the-sake-of-it" conclusion at the very end was pretty bad too. Maybe not for audience's sakes, but for storytelling sakes. Oh well, actually for audience's sakes too if they want to see a good movie and not just fake happiness and closure. Really hurts in terms of the authenticity and as this is one of the film's key components to show us a rough but real world, it makes things even worse. They destroyed a lot in these final 20-25 minutes that they constructed so well before that. A bit of a shame. I think the scenes with the cows, calves, sheep and lambs were all handled very well too I must say and judging from the audible reactions, especially those from the female audience members, people liked them.
The film's biggest strength is certainly that it won't go for cheap thrills in terms of homophobia. The characters' sexual preferences are never judged negatively by the supporting characters, even if they sometimes fear they would be. And this area is a huge problem in many gay-themed (short) films. But Lee never made this issue crucial in his work here and with that he made the perfect decision. The film is never defined by the characters' homosexuality, but it is defining as a character study about illness, desperation, family, work, love, hope and many other components. Eventually I will be a bit generous here as it is a close call if this one gets a thumbs-up or thumbs-down from me, but I give the edge to the positive. Still I must say that the awards attention is definitely over the top and you should not expect any kind of greatness when checking this one out because otherwise you will be pretty disappointed and not able to see this film for what it is: a solid love story and an even better family story.