
Harry and Max lacks all of the subtle interplay between characters that has so far been a hallmark of Christopher Munch's films. The premise sounded interesting and challenging, but the film was a let down for me.
None of the characters here, even Harry and Max themselves, are fully formed. Unfortunately, this means that the salacious premise (the repercussions of two teen pop idol brothers' incest) never overcomes its own silliness. I thought the nearly non-stop chatter between the two main characters would eventually be banished as merely a cover up for their deeper thoughts, but no, apparently this silly dialog was meant to be thought provoking in some way.
Why are these guys pop stars? Oh yeah, because who wants to see a movie about incest unless the stars are attractive? It should be central to their characters, but it seems only to be an excuse for Harry to have some sort of A Star is Born angst and for the audience to see pretty faces.
Max is infatuated with Harry, then Harry is infatuated with Max, both sleep with the other's past loves, vague hints are given about their messed up family and absolutely NOTHING of significance about love, human nature, lust, relationships, or anything else is ever revealed.
Not helping matters is the cursery development of all other characters. Josiah, Roxanne and Jordan are all treated like pieces of the set to be moved around at the need of the director. None has any depth, motivations or interesting qualities beyond their usefulness as background for Harry and Max. Even the boys' mother is reduced to two minutes of muddled screen time bitchiness. Nikki, for me, was the only interesting character here, but the reasons for her choices are never explored and in the end she winds up as flat as all the others.
Writers need to make choices and here none have been made. Either focus only on Harry and Max, or focus on their world, but please do one or the other with some degree of success! To my mind, this is Christopher Munch's worst film to date, not because of its scandalous subject matter, but because of its inability to reveal anything of interest about it!
兄弟禁斷之愛。哥哥哈瑞是前男孩樂隊(duì)成員,看著16歲的弟弟馬克在他之后成為青年偶象。這個(gè)冬天,本來打算去日本的他繞路陪伴馬克帳篷旅行。但起初充滿歡樂和兄弟情誼的旅行卻很快冷卻下來,他們之間的問題重新浮出水面,無法忽視,迫使他們面對(duì)那傷痕累累的過去:哈瑞酗酒的毛病,他對(duì)家庭的疏離,還有他與馬克的曖昧關(guān)系。這些,在他們成長(zhǎng)的歲月中,如影隨形;兩人的感情,也始終尋不到確切的出口。
這是一部耐看的作品。有點(diǎn)像小品,有點(diǎn)像實(shí)驗(yàn)電影,乍看之下樸實(shí)無華,仔細(xì)看了,卻是此中有深意。兩兄弟有個(gè)自私又貪財(cái)?shù)哪赣H,只有彼此可以依靠。一起成長(zhǎng),積累回憶,情不自禁成為彼此最在意的人。雖然不是那種伴侶,或者,他們那樣才是終身伴侶吧。然而,無關(guān)哥哥的酗酒,還有他們的家庭困境,他們只是無法純粹地在一起。每個(gè)人都有Dark Side的部分,只有最親近的人,才會(huì)讓他見到自己最不堪的一面吧。親情,友情,愛情,界限又在哪里呢?
“反觀我們一起成長(zhǎng)的那段人生里
大多數(shù)人想有個(gè)一個(gè)像Harry這樣的哥哥
但我們無法控制
相互吸引”