Oh, brother

>> Siblings' reconciliation in the face of AIDS rings false in The Perfect Son

by MATTHEW HAYS

The Perfect Son is a mighty earnest and well-meaning movie about two troubled brothers who reconnect after the death of their father. The older one (Colm Feore) is a responsible, seemingly conservative lawyer who was the one their ailing father leaned on. David Cubitt plays the 30 year old, a ne'er-do-well who has been in and out of rehab for years for a bad drinking/shooting habit.

And as Cubitt soon finds out, nothing is ever as simple as it first seems. Feore isn't so straight-laced after all; he's gay, in fact, and is grappling with full-blown AIDS. Suddenly, the irresponsible Cubitt must learn to be less so, as his estranged brother actually needs him. For good measure, first-time director/writer Leonard Farlinger tosses in a sub-plot about a pregnant ex-girlfriend and an appointment for an abortion, just in case any of us missed the running theme about life and death and that sort of thing.

Troubled family relations can certainly serve screenplays well--witness the exemplary You Can Count on Me, Kenneth Lonergan's devastating clan-related indie--but Farlinger's character studies are so faulted as to sink The Perfect Son's chances for reaching us. As the film moves along, there is little indication of how or why the two remained estranged for so long. Clearly, both men are damaged, victims of years of self-hatred. What was it about their lives that kept these two otherwise-sensitive men at such emotional distance for so many years? For the most part, it feels like none of these questions are really answered. And how the hell did Cubitt not figure out he had a gay brother until now?

Scenes depicting the thaw in their relations are similarly shallow. Feore takes Cubitt on a rather contrived tour of gay life, including a trip to the bathhouse (I wish they all looked so good), an introduction to bitchy friends--why, the two brothers even get gay bashed together! The film is also handed a blow by the fact that, thanks to Benetton, we all know what someone facing the final stages of AIDS looks like. Feore, on the contrary, often looks like the picture of health.

It's sad to write an unfavourable review of a film like this--the people behind it wanted to do some good. But The Perfect Son only occasionally managed to hit notes that weren't false.

The Perfect Son opens Friday, Feb. 2