The more you watch this movie, the better it gets. It packs an emotional wallop. Even though the depiction of the two young gay men being totally free and expressing their love outwardly is very unrealistic because Akron is a very homophobic city.
The acting by all is outstanding. Matthew Frias projects the dominant role in the relationship. He makes the first move and takes charge. He's displays the Latino temperament when he's riled, especially in a scene where he blows up at his boyfriend. Edmund Donovan seems to be the sensitive one who grounds Benny when things are tense. His projection of love for Benny is something everyone dreams about. He seems to good to be true and Donovan's acting is touching because you feel his pain as the pawn who is caught in the middle. The scene where he rips into his mother is riveting, yet heartbreaking.
This film does not deserve the rating that it has gotten from IMDb. It deserves better and I wouldn't believe the negative ratings. Despite some of the implausibility of the plot, the performances and the direction overcome that detail.
Plot summary
Benny, a college freshman at the University of Akron, Ohio meets and falls for fellow freshman Christopher at a football game. With the support of their families and friends they embark on a new relationship. But a tragic event in the past involving their mothers soon comes to light and threatens to tear them apart. Akron is a moving family drama and a sensitive young adult love story of two young men falling in love in the Midwest and their will to overcome the most painful of truths.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
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Heart tugging and Emotional Family Movie
Amateurish production
This is a low budget, amateurish production that is at the level of a high school drama project. The acting is forced and the dialog appears improvised and plain silly! It is an unwatchable film and just a total and complete waste of time. 2/10 is very generous for a rating!
No bells, no whistles - just a romance.
A gentle romance based on a slightly far-fetched premiss. Two young men become friends after a game of mud ball; their relationship blossoms until they go on a trip together and discover a shared tragedy in their past that tests the relationships with themselves and their families. It's a low-budget affair; decent enough performances from the two leads - Edmund Donovan and Matthew Frias - but don't expect anything too substantial. Maybe that's why it works - it is a movie about love (not necessarily gay love) without the usual drug use, effing and blinding and nudity. The "daytime" television feel is maybe what makes the film more remarkable - it's all just so ordinary as to treat same-sex attraction as routine - and that's no bad thing.