BEAUTIFUL THING (1996) | Dir: Hettie Macdonald | Based on Jonathan Harvey’s play of the same name, BEAUTIFUL THING felt like a breath of fresh air in 1996. A coming-of-age tale set in a working class area of London, BT tells the story of a sweet, sensitive boy named Jamie who realizes he’s not interested in sports like the other guys, but very interested in Ste, a classmate who comes from a hardscrabble life. The film is populated by some wonderful supporting characters, including Sandra, Jamie’s single mother with man troubles of her own and who wants to open her own pub, and their neighbor, Leah, a sassy, obnoxious young woman who’s usually inebriated or high. It’s a film about first love, the class struggle, friendship, community, and love of the music of Mama Cass Elliot. There’s a scene in the film where the two boys run thought a forest as they are falling in love that is entirely cliché and over-the-top — and it works perfectly. (I remember the nearly full audience I screened the film with cheering loudly during it.) During a prolific period of queer films being made, the late 90s, it was fun watching two boys fall in love rather than die of AIDS or suicide or murder or loneliness. It’s a film filled with hope. For all of its gritty optimism, there’s also a current of sadness, when you realize that after the credits roll, so many of the troubles these boys had been experiencing (bullying, prejudice, poverty) aren’t going anywhere. But love somehow softens the bludgeons of life and somehow makes life worth living.
