God’s Own Country
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or on demand, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews” or “Home Viewing”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
July 6, 2017 – God’s Own Country
God’s Own Country opened up this year’s Outfest at The Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I’d seen concerts at The Orpheum, but I was thrilled to be going there for a movie. Not enough downtown movie houses are operating, but with The Ace Hotel and more following suit, that’s changing.
I had heard that God’s Own Country was Britain’s answer to Brokeback Mountain, and that’s for sure, unfortunately for some of the wrong reasons, too. It takes place in rural Yorkshire, England where a listless young man named Johnny lives on his parents’ farm, and although more is asked of him to maintain the farm, he often finds himself at the local bars or breezing through trysts with other men. His life changes when Gheorghe, a migrant worker from Romania, is hired to work the farm with him.
Like in Brokeback, Johnny and Gheorghe’s love affair is fiery, the two men kiss an grab at each other almost violently with desperate passion. Also like in Brokeback, there’s a character who is skeptical of their relationship who witnesses the two men in a playful moment from afar. But, right when it seems like it’s following the Brokeback template to a T, it actually has a more hopeful finale, which I welcomed. I know that gay stories, if they’re to be historically accurate or if they’re going to feel authentic when set in certain places, are often sad or downright brutal. History has not been kind. Although those stories are important to tell, changes from that kind of film I’m a fan of, and I’ll be reviewing two more Outfest films that were glorious straight-up comedies!
One side effect of God’s Own Country is how much you learn about goat farming. They go into great, sometimes gory, detail whether you wanted to know it or not. Lastly, be prepared to pay attention to this movie. It’s not one you want on in the background while you do dishes or something. The country dialects are thick and lip reading will help…
Directed by: Francis Lee
Release Date: October 27, 2017
Run Time: 104 Minutes
Country: UK
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
