LONGTIME COMPANION
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The tragic effect of AIDS on the gay community is movingly brought to the screen. This American Playhouse production may be the most adult and substantial film released this summer, albeit one of the least expensive. Rating: high +1.
Some of the best films being shown in theaters are actually made for television. They are productions for PBS's "American Playhouse" that get their initial release in movie theaters before getting shown on public television. It is a positive-sum strategy since a theatrical release will help pay for the film. Since the film is already made for another venue the investment to get it into the theaters is relatively meager. And it is nice to see a film a little more substantial than BACK TO THE FUTURE III or FIRE BIRDS playing on the wide screen.
Norman Rene directed Craig Lucas's screenplay. The subject is a group of gay friends living on Fire Island and in Manhattan and how AIDS changed their lives. They go from an apparently carefree existence in the early Eighties through somber and often frightening changes as the disease claims victims from among their numbers. The behaviors we see are very much universal to epidemics and plagues. Initially the diseases are taken with concern but also with an occasional flippant optimism. We see weird explanations of what the epidemic "really is." Paranoia poisons the former carefree friendships. All the while the disease is taking its toll in the decreasing circle of friends.
LONGTIME COMPANION has too many major characters to keep them all straight (no pun intended), particularly because they all look like wholesome, male WASPs, but the center of the group is David, played by Bruce Davison. Davison's acting goes unnoticed until his character is placed under a severe emotional strain. Then Davison does some excellent acting that must be about the best he has ever done. Also notable is Mary-Louise Parker as a close (heterosexual) friend.
A couple of touches in the script are worth mentioning. There is a reference in the 1982 sequence to William Hurt playing a gay character. I believe they are alluding to Hurt's performance in the 1985 KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Also, there are about ten dated sequences and all but the last four take place on Fridays. That seems too many for coincidence, yet none of the last four is a Friday. (I am probably the only one who notices these things.)
LONGTIME COMPANION is not great. I would give it a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. But at a reported $1.5 million in production cost and with a timely subject, this film is probably a very good choice for a theatrical release.
Mark R. Leeper
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