MQFF 2010: DARE

Wah! Where did the week go? One minute it's Saturday and I'd just finished blogging about seeing the excellent Children of God at the 20th Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and the next minute it's the following Friday and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has already begun. Argh! So, time for a rapid run-through of what else I've seen at the MQFF over the last week...

DARE
(Dir. Adam Salky, USA, 2009)

Following the success of their acclaimed 2005 short film of the same name (which I described as 'a fresh take on the coming out film, which effectively communicates that fraught moment when you first put your desire on the line' when it showed at the MQFF in 2006) director Adam Salky and writer David Brind have reworked and expanded their mini-drama about a gay teen and the straight-in-theory jock he desires into an enjoyable but unremarkable feature film.

The story follows three teenagers, the wanna-be-theatre-diva Alexa (Emmy Rossum), her shy best friend Ben (Ashley Springer) and Johnny the jock (Zach Gilford) whose arrogant facade hides a sensitive soul who just wants to be loved; and is divided into thirds, with each segment of the film following one of the three main characters as they are drawn into an awkward ménage à trois.

Alexa wants to be an actress, but according to her drama teacher's former star pupil Grant Matson (a sly cameo by Alan Cumming) she lacks the life experience necessary to embody true emotion. Consequently, she throws herself at Johnny at a drunken party. Ben soon follows suit, in a swimming pool seduction scene which was the centrepiece of the original short film; and soon poor Johhny, who just wants to be friends with Ben and Alexa, finds himself a pawn in their attempts to out-vamp each other.

Dare is not a perfect film, but it's certainly more adventurous and more heartfelt than most teen dramas. A more accomplished writer/director team might have worked wonders with the story; as it is the film falls short of what it was striving for. Nonetheless, the performances are solid - Gilford particularly, although the most outstanding performer in the film is Ana Gasteyer as Ben's mother, who transforms her two dimension post-hippie mum into a truly remarkable and loveable character. Overall it comes across (in the words of my friend Byron, who I saw it with) as a milder John Hughes film for the 21st century. Not brilliant, but definitely enjoyable.

Rating: Three stars