As a card-carrying romantic I've sometimes made the mistake of trying to extend a lovely one-night stand into something more than it was meant to be. Perhaps the embarrassment I've felt when these situations didn't work out made me sensitive to sophomore filmmaker Andrew Haigh (Greek Pete) doing the same thing to his characters in Weekend.
The film won all sorts of awards and nominations before the prestigious Criterion Collection acquired it for DVD release, so somebody must like it; but it preaches being true to who you are and what made you that way, so I can only express my honest reactions to it.
Love in the movies happens on a grand scale in major studio films and more intimately in independent films. But love always happens, or what's the point?
That's the point of Weekend, which is definitely small and independent. But is it about love? You may not know, even when it's over, but you'll want it to be.
Often called a "gay Before Sunrise," Weekend shares that film's premise of love on a deadline; but while Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy seemed to make every moment as romantic as it could be, Tom Cullen and Chris New do almost the opposite—to the point that you may wonder what brings them back together after each temporary parting.
Cullen plays Russell. (If that name is ever spoken in the film I didn't hear it—although so much of the dialogue is either spoken very quietly or fighting to be heard over music and sound effects, I missed quite a bit.) Set in Nottingham, Weekend begins with Russell in the tub, getting ready to go to dinner with a group of his best friends, all of whom are straight.
After dinner Russell heads to a gay bar, where he cruises Glen (New) but almost winds up with another man they jokingly call "the Hobbit." We don't know what happens until Glen wakes up in Russell's bed the next morning, whips out his—wait for it!—tape recorder, and asks Russell to recount the events of the night before for an "art project."
Russell goes off to his job as a lifeguard at a public pool but gets together with Glen again afterward. This time, Glen reveals that he's leaving the next day for at least two years in Oregon. Since there's no indication of a deep bond forming between them, that sounds like a win-win. The sex is good so they can spend one more night together, then part without a great sense of loss.
But booze and drugs bring their conversations to new levels of intimacy, which is where Weekend begins to get interesting after far too much prologue. They share stories of past sexual adventures and reveal themselves to be as far apart philosophically as Republicans and Democrats.
Glen is an extrovert and an activist. Hurt by a previous relationship, he's not looking for another one and doesn't think anyone else should be, either. Russell is an introvert who's not into public displays of affection but wants someone to be with in private. He's a romantic who would fall in love with a bee if it stung him. There's no reason for these guys to even think of being together for more than a weekend, except that they're in a movie.
The good thing about one-night stands is that they're over before you start to discover the things you don't like about each other. The "opposites attract" thing is only true to a point. Relationships take a lot of work and while Russell and Glen make giant strides in their short time together, I wasn't convinced they have something worth the effort required—even without their imminent separation—to take it to the next level.
Being more of a Russell than a Glen myself, I wanted to love Weekend, but the spark wasn't there for me because I couldn't believe it was there for the protagonists.
That's no reflection on the actors, who do fine work at an amazing level of intimacy that must have been incredibly awkward. Maybe I've been ruined by Hollywood movies where people start out as antagonists and gradually become attracted to each other. In this case, the attraction comes first, then the antagonism—and we're supposed to believe love grows out of that. Sorry, I can't buy it; but Weekend should be a good date movie, perhaps even a litmus test for a couple's potential.
