Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

ComedyFan2010 Henry Hart comes back to his sick grandpa into the fictional town Big Eden and finds love. It is a simple script but I like how it is done. On one part it is not 100% realistic. It is more of a gay utopia. A small town in Montana where everyone is not only gay accepting but doesn't even seem to care that anyone is gay, they just want them to be happy. This helped to make a gay romance movie that is different. It isn't about a coming out or worrying about homophobic neighbours. It is a simple romantic movie like they would do with a straight couple.I loved all the characters and how they presented them. The lady who tried to hook Henry up with women first but then got the idea and the whole town went on helping Pike to get with him. Including those cowboys sitting in his store all day doing nothing and yet making little moves to get him closer to Henry.And then some parts are more realistic than in other gay movies. The characters are normal men. Over 30 or even 40. Not models but looking like a normal guy. I think this formula of switching what is usually more realistic and more fiction in the common gay movies and creating something very different. This was a nice and a pretty sweet result.

jgrv-1 Big Eden is such an excellent film on so many levels. The Montana scenery is breathtaking, the storyline is compelling, all of the characters are likable and the directing, as well as the acting, is superb.It is refreshing to watch a gay-themed movie devoid not only of labels and homophobia, but also without young, hard-bodied, model-pretty twink boys. Big Eden boasts normal looking men in a love triangle, all pushing forty. And we have a film with a happy ending for a gay couple- -no disillusionment, disease or death.One of the most interesting observations about Big Eden is how much is NOT openly discussed. Of course, much is made of the fact that Henry (Arye Gross) never tells his grandfather (George Coe) about his sexuality, even though "Sampa" practically begs him to do so. But besides that, the viewer is (intentionally) left to fill in many of the blanks. We don't get to find out the background of Pike Dexter's (Eric Schweig) 20-year, silent, unrequited love for Henry, nor do we hear anyone else discuss it, even though it's clear from the start that Grace (Louise Fletcher) knows all about it and is a behind-the-scenes cheerleader for the two of them; we see and hear no discussion between the Widow Thayer (hilariously played by Nan Martin) and Pike, once she realizes Pike has been substituting her donated meals with his own; when Jim (O'Neal Compton) confronts Pike about his feelings for Henry, nothing is overtly revealed, but absolutely understood; we do not witness the conversation the Widow Thayer has with Henry, where she finally tells him that Pike is the gourmet chef; nor do we see the details of what bring Henry and Pike together at the end. And somehow, it all works brilliantly.Roger Ebert was very critical of the final scene of the movie, the waltz where Henry and Pike share a prolonged, passionate kiss. Ebert felt it was overdone and that a simple "care to dance?" would have provided a better ending. I could not disagree more. The whole film dealt, purposely, with unrequited love and a lack of letting the audience in on storyline details. The kiss provided the perfect ending: the scene before the waltz takes place just before Christmas and we fast forward to an outside dance (presumably the Fourth of July). We see with our own eyes that Henry and Pike have indeed become the couple we've been rooting for throughout the entire film and, to our delight, their love is genuine.All of the aforementioned actors portray their roles wonderfully, as do Tim Mc Kay as Dean (Henry's longtime crush) and Veanne Cox as Henry's agent. Eric Schweig is the real standout in the cast, bringing expressive pathos to the character of Pike, with a minimum of dialogue. Schweig's Best Actor award for this performance, from LA Outfest, was richly deserved.

mll1-2 If you're looking for a slice-of-life or are of the mindset that romance (in it's broadest meaning) needs to be founded in logic, you'll probably want to pass on this charming little movie.For me, the film is an enchanting little fantasy. It creates its own little world -- granted it's a world that has nothing to do with the one you and I live in, but does it have to? Isn't an idealized world a viable option -- at least for a couple of hours? Can't we have a place where our imagination can live for a little while? If the two "lovers" in the movie were male and female, I don't think the comments on the absence of reality would be quite so common. We allow our hetero romantic comedies to be unrealistic and just chalk it up to the genre. Let's do the same with our gay-themed romances.Of course part of the problem may lie in the fact that all the tried-and-true gay clichés aren't featured in Big Eden: there are no hot. hunky, hardbody prettyboys -- in fact the two gay leads are soft, pudgy and on the "homespun" side; the two gay characters don't dress well; they don't dance well; only one can cook; neither can decorate; there wasn't one song by Madonna, reference to Judy or snippet from a Bette Davis movie; nobody gets rutting naked; lust is tentative and sweet. Geez, these guys would probably have lost their Gay Cards years ago -- except that one may be the most evolved self-loathing gay ever and the other is one of the biggest closet cases ever (if he could figure out how to lumber into the closet in the first place).So, all this silliness notwithstanding, what makes this movie such a charming fantasy? Well, imagine a town where everyone is nice and well intentioned. Imagine a town where no one seems to have to work for a living. Imagine a place where love refers not to ripping off clothes and getting it on, but to essential relationships between people, regardless of gender. Imagine a place where people are accepted -- and loved -- for who and what they are. Just imagine.If you can watch a movie musical and not wonder why all those people are suddenly signing and dancing, you can probably suspend your credulity long enough to relish the time you spend in Big Eden. I plan to go back soon.

bruceprzybylski It's really hard to find a portrayal of gay men, much less men-of-color, who are not prissy, have a fashion obsession or catty. This movie does a pretty good job, except for the "fruit fly" female character playing the manager to the lead male's painter. Man, does she ever shut up!?! She's on the screen for mere minutes and you want to never see her again, a total throwaway character.The story is typical guy holding torch for some guy who showed him some attention when he was younger, now after 20+ years he has a chance to see him again, blah blah blah. The truth is any gay man over the age of 25 realizes dreams like that never come true and if you are lucky you find love in places and whenever you least expect it. So that part of the movie comes off as pretty stereotypical, gay man staring and acting like a big ol' girl when the straight crush is around. The Pike Character was a real good job by Eric Schweig. It was great to see a brown man who isn't willowy and hanging on a middle-aged white guy like he's going to faint. The shyness of the character is interesting, no cloud of shame or second-class "so grateful you white/straight people like me". You don't even know where his heart lies until well into the movie, moving into it like a puff of air on the edge of a wheat field and forming gentle designs as it moves across. When the time comes and the lead character is in Pike's arms you see a really powerful image, the white lead is a molehill to Pike's mountain and probably one of the best kisses on film.