Clapham Junction

36 Hours of Vaguely Related Gay Scenes in South London
I have viewed a 90-minute download of the BBC version of this film [as well as this DVD]. A IMDB review of the 2007 BBC TV presentation of Clapham Junction starts, "Over a two day period a series of interconnected events impact a disparate group of [gay] Londoners," and that is quite accurate even if the period is actually about 36 hours.

Clapham Junction is a major train-connecting point in the London Borough of Wandsworth, not far from Lavender Hill, the location of The Lavender Hill Mob, but that was a comedy and this is certainly not.

In 2005, a gay man, Jody Dobrowski, suffered a horrendously brutal murder on Clapham Common, and a similar event is central to this film, which is an ultimately depressing and sometimes shocking exploration of contemporary urban gay sexuality. Some of the characters are deeply unpleasant, dishonest and self absorbed. But you will want to watch them...

A movie many will hate because it tells the truth
Whilst the loud voices of gay communities around the world jump on the 'we have the right to be married' band-wagon this movie takes us back to the truth: we have the right to be accepted, the right not to be bashed, not to be pilloried, that we have the right to love; but also, we are obliged to treat others with how we would like to be treated. This is a dark and despairing movie, so far from the West Coast US (or Sydney) gay party-boy image of gay men as it can get and it's about time it was made.

I'll defer to Bob Drake's excellent synopsis above. I'd add that the settings, the cinematography, the nuances and ironies are all first class; the actors superb some of the characters you want to hug, others need a good... no, I won't advocate violence. The dinner party scene juxtaposed to the riveting seduction scene and the reality of the outside world is brilliant.

If you think that we should be accepted; if you think that we have the right to love; if you think...

GREAT MOVIE, LOUSY MESSAGE
An excellent performance from all concerned in what is basically, in spite of its hype, a dark homophobic movie intended to make gays go back into the closet and bolt it from the inside. It concerns a serious of vicious attacks on gays in a particular neighborhood of London, presumably from real events. One is told that "neighbors" get together to fight back. Absolutely no such thing. Not one single attack is traced to its perpetrators. What one gets is a bunch of boring homophobic suburbanites having dinner while a gay boy gets murdered right outside. Kudos for having dared to expose the reality of sex between teens and adults. Many times, the teen is the aggressor, which was portrayed in the movie with chilling and heartbreaking accuracy. Wilby and Graves, of "Maurice" fame, are bit players in this one. Time has been kind to Graves, not Wilby. The movie belongs to the teen and his adult target. Real chemistry there! I like the movie, not the content.

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