Wordiezett So much average

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

moonspinner55 Lesbian marries a Belgian gay man to keep him in the States; they fall in love for real, but he cheats on her--with a woman. Gay leading characters (male or female) in a mainstream motion picture hadn't been in vogue for a number of years--you'd have to go back to "The Fox" or "The Killing of Sister George" in 1968, "The Boys in the Band" in 1970 and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in 1971--which makes screenwriter Henry Olek's efforts here doubly disappointing. He has the brave notion to introduce homosexual people in a bland, middle-of-the-road setting (no camp attributes), and then drops the ball (or, perhaps, the ball was taken and dropped for him). You can't blame the actors--Meg Foster or Perry King--they are doing what they were assigned to do, to push forward a false plot. But they are pawns in a heterosexual's fantasy, that the gay lifestyle can be "corrected" with the "right partner." The agenda here is obviously unbalanced, and yet director Paul Aaron forges on with Olek's romantic clichés as if the only audience for their picture were straight, upper-class men and women who want to be able to say when it's over, "I always knew it was a choice." * from ****

Poseidon-3 Considered somewhat daring at the time, but tamer now from years of subsequent film and television projects that further explored the topic of homosexuality, this romantic comedy-drama concerns an unlikely couple. King plays a sexy, gay Belgian (sans accent) who has lived as the plaything of several wealthy men, most recently symphony conductor Donat. When things go rotten in their arrangement, King finds himself staying with Donat's pretty, but sloppy, real estate agent. This kicks off a Felix vs Oscar sort of "Odd Couple" storyline until one day when circumstances lead to the pair standing before a judge in order to get married! The marriage is in name only for a long time, but eventually a real affection develops between the two and it turns physical. However, there may be a limit to how many new tricks an ol' dog like King can learn or re-learn, thus the relationship hits a road bump or two along the way. King is slim, toned, tan and blonde, strutting around in some very skimpy briefs and well-worn pants (and sometimes even less than that!) He gives a committed and heartfelt performance, though occasionally he is seen acting far more feminine than at other times, perhaps due to shifts in acting choices as the filming progressed. (Note the flaming way he acts in the scene with Donat following a party, though he doesn't behave this way again.) Foster is excellent, lending much feeling and passion to a difficult role. She also suffers a bit from inconsistency in her manner and mannerisms, going from chain-smoking slob to immaculately coiffed wife with little or no impetus. Sometimes both actors seem to have worked heavily on the outside of their characters in order to convey inner changes and it does come off a wee bit forced at times (King adopting a butch moustache and wearing three-piece suits is another example that comes to mind.) Still, the actors share great chemistry and clearly worked well together during this film. Curtain is excellent as a neurotic, fatalistic companion of Foster's. Bull and Collentine (spouses in real life as well) appear as Foster's fussy parents. The film had a divisive affect on the gay community then and now. Some saw it as an unrealistic sell-out while others were grateful to be represented at all. To the film's defense, both characters were always presented as having had sex beforehand with both sexes and it is purportedly based on a true story! (The author named Foster's character Stella, after his friend Stella Stevens, though he did not indicate that she was the inspiration for the scenario.) One of the film's flaws is the device of using tiny little episodic scenes, separated by blackouts. This gives the opening portion of the film a choppy feel. The film was made by people who specialized in TV commercials, so perhaps very lengthy sequences were not their forte and, in fact, some of the visuals and scenarios do resemble 1970's TV commercials at times. If one can accept the premise, without finding it unbelievable or offensive, this is a pretty easy and charming diversion featuring two appealing people.

BERGDORF This movie is as unique as it is overlooked......A Different Story is just that, it shows how out of the need to survive or maintain, one can find the capacity to love if you have an open heart as well as an open mind. I first saw this on cable in the late 70's and it truly depicted the limitations of the gay community at the time. I believe this movie was ahead of its time in depicting a little slice of an obscure way of life. It is truly a classic in the sense that it was a precursor to what is now depicted as the extended family. This film should be available on DVD/VHS so that not only the extra ordinary performances of Meg Foster & Perry King can be acknowledged, but to show how far we have come & still have to go where relationships are concerned.

baker-9 Since this film was made in the 70's when people understood very little about homosexuality, I suppose someone was bound to come up with this absurd scenario. A gay man winds up playing house with a lesbian, then they get married to prevent his being deported.After discovering each other sexually after a drunken birthday party, they are magically turned into full-fledged heterosexuals, becoming parents in the process. Once the guy begins working for a gay designer, we're setup to think he's going to go back to his old ways. (Spoiler Alert!) Well, he's having an affair all right, but with a female model. But all is well in the end.This film is written and acted with complete sincerity, making the whole thing look truly clueless by today's standards. Gay life is represented by our hero's largely sexual attachments to wealthy men and trips to a bathhouse, while the heroine has a relationship with a pathologically insecure closeted lesbian who threatens suicide. In other words, the film makes being gay look like a truly depressing dead end existence - one that you can choose to give up when the right person of the opposite sex shows up.I suppose the bogus "ex-gay" movement could use this film as a recruiting device, except that it's pretty dull.