I Think I Do

Director(s): Brian Sloan
Writer(s): Brian Sloan
Producer(s): Lane Janger, Bettina Tendler O'Mara
Starring: Alexis Arquette, Christian Maelen, Tuc Watkins

Bob and Brandon were best friends in college. After one particularly traumatic Valentine's Day when Bob's true feelings for Straight Brandon are revealed, their friendship was never quite the same. Years later, Bob finds himself as a writer for a soap opera and dating the soap's leading hunk, Sterling. Brandon is the hunky high school english teacher. Their friends, Carol and Matt, finally decide to tie the knot which provides a perfect time for a mini-college reunion. Bob, excited to catch up with lost friends grows happier as Sterling proposes. Bob is sitting at the top of the world until he meets Brandon once again. Old feelings he thought were dead begin to rekindle, especially when Brandon begins to return the feelings. Bob finds himself at a crossroads, deciding between his former fantasy love and his current beau.

When I first read the description of this film on my Netflix profile, it seemed incredibly familiar to me. I couldn't remember if I had watched it in the past. After about five minutes, I remembered I watched this eight years prior when I was in high school. Boy am I glad that I watched this again. I forgot how good films of the 1990s were, especially with LGBT subject matter. I vividly remembered watching this film and thinking to myself about what it would be like to be a post-college adult and reuniting with old friends. Now eight years later, I find myself as that very post-college adult reuniting with those dear friends as we stand on the brink of the ultimate adultdom. . . marriage. This film made me nostalgic for the times when I sat around with friends between classes or crammed for finals side by side with a partner in crime. It also made me nostalgic for the day when Chris Simpson flooded my fantasies. I'm not sure what I would do if Chris Simpson popped wood for men today, let alone have that undying love for me now that I had for him back then.

For this very reason, this film does an excellent job of not only conveying gay love, but the love between friends. As dysfunctional as the group of friends is, they are definitely the epitome of the surrogate family that many LGBT youth create. The chemistry between Alexis Arquette and Christian Maelen was natural and comfortable. The side characters offer amusing and interesting character arcs such as a bride bored with the idea of her wedding. The plot came to a nice conclusion in the end but left ample room for the growing story. What starts as a modern day variation on 1930's silent films with dividing title cards (similar to movies like "Jeffrey"), ends in a movie that makes your forget all form and structure so you can appreciate the true nature of story telling.