Touch of Pink (2004)

hyped garbage

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

As a story this one tries hard. That's the best I'll say for it. I never found a way to really like the characters. Each of them is self involved and absorbed to a degree that makes them stereotypical and ugly. While the main character has an all too common and real dilemma, and his mother's obtuse denial is nothing out of the ordinary, they simply aren't handled in a way that makes the viewer sympathetic towards them. I quite disliked them both at certain points while hoping that I would find them warm and fuzzy.The saddest thing is the boyfriend and how he's treated. He is perhaps the nicest on the bunch but the plot and development leave him starched and angry more than genuinely loving and kind.This film was also a coming out film, and though that's often painful and dramatic this one wasn't. It wasn't often funny or dramatic and though it wasn't the oft repeated teen-aged angst fest that many coming out movies are, it wasn't much different except for giving the main character an ethnic spin.The film did try to get there, but emotionally left me flat. As is sometimes the case, gay themed means poorly done. I hate that, but the market is somewhat starved and often simply having a gay theme gets a movie made that shouldn't or wouldn't get made on it's own merits. I think there should be tons more gay themed movies, but I think they need to be good movies that are gay themed not simply expect to be good because they're gay themed. In the same way that simply seeing Disney on a label doesn't guarantee a truly fine film, seeing the word gay doesn't mean a movie is relevant or meaningful to gay people.Though it had good intentions I don't think this was a relevant or meaningful movie to gay/lesbian audiences. It might be more to the point to say it could entertain those not in the community in the same way shows like Will and Grace do. By being over the top parodies of real life, they entertain but never enlighten and never really touch the people they are supposed to be about.

What a charming, insightful, tender coming-of age story. The idea of Cary Grant as the invisible childhood friend who survives to adulthood is tremendously clever - but the entire convention exists, I think, for Cary's final scene when Alim let's him go. To layer Alim's farewell to childhood, including forgiving his mother's abandonment of him, and his acceptance of the harsher truths of adulthood-including Giles' infidelity- with Cary's inability to live as a open gay man is nothing short of brilliant. So subtle. So tender. Few gay films possess this kind of nuance. This is also the story of Alim's mother's coming-of-age as well. Although touched by life's darker side through the early death of her husband, the realization that London was not ready for an Indian Doris Day, and the guilt of leaving her child, she experiences, first hand, the same emotions that Alim experiences - including the desire to hide reality and lie to family members. Her release from that web, due, in large part, to the warmth and character of Giles, allows her to literally, dance again.

Alright, a well-intended movie and pleasant enough, if only the two lead characters weren't so unconvincing! Especially that Giles-person, really spoiled it for me. Mum and aunt were alright though, and so were a lot of other minor roles. The music was good too, very becoming of the whole atmosphere of the film. And even though you could see the twists and turns coming for miles, it was, as a whole, uplifting. Again, I just think they could have casted much better actors for the main roles. I know I already made that point and it's the only point I really wanted to make,but apparently these things have to be 10 lines minimum. So there.

Entertaining but uneven movie. It's a cute concept, and Kyle Maclanahan is wonderful as the spirit of Cary Grant. I found the lead actor to be a bit uneven, but buoyed by excellent performances by the supporting actors and actresses. I was glad it didn't fall into the "gay guy forces straight friend to play fiancée" cliché - it hit it, went on, and we weren't forced to listen to tired jokes. Worth a rental, emotional but light-hearted. The only jarring part was the "relationship" between the lead character and his cousin - I found it hard to believe that an intimate relationship between first cousins, especially male, would be permitted.