Bedrooms and Hallways
Director: Rose Troche (Go Fish)
Cast: Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting), Tom Hollander, Hugo
Weaving.
Bedrooms
and Hallways is a hilarious romp through the issues of sexual identity
for the early 30 something year olds. Smartly scripted and nicely
filmed, it’s well worth going to see.
Leo (Kevin McKidd) arrives home on the night of his 30th birthday to find that his housemate, Darren (Tom Hollander) has thrown him a surprise party. Leo rushes to his room to hide from everyone, and is confronted by his housemate. It seems that the last couple of months have been extremely eventful and complicated for both of them. Leo thinks back over that time and we are treated to a hilarious journey through his recent past.
Leo is gay. His straight business partner invites him to come to a session with his new age men’s group. All goes well, until the group leader passes around the “honesty stone”. You must be completely honest when it is your turn to hold the stone. Leo shares that he has a crush on Brendan, one of the other men in the group. This throws the rest of the group into confusion. Soon everyone is either objecting to the situation or questioning their own sexuality. The man in question starts to pursue Leo and soon they are on intimate terms. Meanwhile Leo’s housemate is having an active relationship with a real estate agent, Jeremy, played by Hugo Weaving. Jeremy takes Darren out to the houses he is trying to sell to have sex with Darren whilst the owners are out. This makes for some hilarious and hair raising scenes!
Well, things get complicated for both couples. Darren starts to think that his relationship is only based on sex in other people’s houses, whilst Leo finds that Brendan has a girlfriend. But, as is the case with most light hearted comedies, it all turns out well (with a few surprises) for everyone at the end.
One last word, check out the couple who run the new age courses, notable the husband played by Simon Callow (the guy that dies in Four Weddings and a Funeral). I think that they are incredibly funny.
Esther Speight
