Beautiful Thing

The story centers around Jamie (Berry) and Ste (Neal), 2 teenage classmates and neighbors in a working-class development in London. Jamie is a reserved teen sharing a normal relationship with his single, pub manager Mom (Henry). Ste lives an emotionally and physically abused life at the hands of his single father and older brother. What transpires between them is a very tender and emotional tale of first love and budding homosexuality. Awakening sexual desire, guilt, fear and, eventually, love is played out in an honest & sincere fashion.

The entire cast is superb. As Jamie & Ste, Glen Berry & Scott Neal give their characters a sweet and emotionally accurate innocence... especially when joyously galavanting through a forest together and sharing a long kiss. Linda Henry is exquisite as Jamie's Mom, Sandra. She delivers a fantastic and multi-layered performance as a woman trying to deal with her own life, in addition to her son. As the Mamas & the Papas loving neighbor Leah, Tameka Empson graciously adds some needed turbulence (comically and otherwise).

The script is heartfelt, comical (some moments between Sandra & Leah are a bitingly hilarious), and fresh. Definitely a wonderful comedy-drama and, perhaps, the best coming out film of the decade.


A fine little film with few peers for the genre   January 31, 2005
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
31 out of 34 found this review helpful

BEAUTIFUL THING may be almost ten years old but the simplicity and honesty of the approach of a gay coming-out film is still hard to match. Director Hettie MacDonald has gathered a group of actors so fresh and real that the story seems more like eavesdropping than a movie.

Jamie (Glen Barrie) lives with his mum Sandra (Linda Henry), a blowsy, tacky, loud but heart of gold waitress, in a housing project. Jamie plays soccer and does all the right things - except he is a closeted gay lad who is forced to come to grips with that fact. He falls in love with Ste (Scott Neal) who lives next door to Jamie's flat and is regularly beaten by his father and brother. How these two come together and eventually move into the world more acquainted with their sexuality and its complexities forms the storyline.

The actors are all superb, including Sandra's boyfriend du jour Tony (Ben Daniels) and the hilarious Leah (Tameka Empson). But the performance by Linda Henry is a stand out: she finds the love in this brazen woman and allows it to surface. Likewise Glen Barrie's Jamie is wholly and palpably believeable.

If there is a fault with this film it is in the dialect of this London suburb: turn on the English subtitles so that you can understand what is being said! Grady Harp, January 2005


FINALLY out in the US on DVD!!   May 24, 2003
R. Stott (Aurora, CO USA)
24 out of 29 found this review helpful

I'm so glad I can finally retire my horrid Japanese-subtitled DVD of Beautiful Thing! This is a very well-done transfer to DVD of a great coming-of-age gay 'fairy tale' of live in Thamesmead outside of London. If you've been waiting as long as I have for this movie to come out on DVD, your wait is over! My only reservation about this DVD transfer is there are no bonus features and no closed-captioning or subtitles for the hearing impaired. Those accents can be hard to follow at times! Well worth any price just to HAVE it on DVD, though! :)


You Just Gotta See It!   March 12, 1999
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

BT is one terrific movie -- and one of those surprises you could have almost missed, but are eternally grateful that you didn't! It's an honest, fun, sensitive and uplifting story about growing up, about loving, and about raw courage -- without any of the political agenda or overwrought angst found in other films like it. Linda Henry and Glen Berry give first-rate performances as Sandra and Jamie, a British working-class mother and teen-age son struggling with the usual stuff that such relationships are made of, while Jamie is simultaneously discovering the depth of his sexuality and the love that he feels for his neighbor and mate, Ste (Scott Neal). Far from being another cliche-filled coming-out story (though coming out is a major theme), Beautiful Thing is most authentically a love story -- and a damned good and happy one, too (though weeping is certainly allowed, encouraged, and unavoidable in certain key scenes). And it's not just about the love that Jamie and Ste share, but, in a way that is inseparable from the main story line, it's about the love that Jamie and his mum feel so strongly for each other. The movie is full of hope and joy, and and will leave you full of those same feelings. Indeed, it sticks to your gut and stays there deep down inside long after you have first seen it.

The downside of this film is that its "R" rating (certainly not for sex -- it's gotta be for the rough language) deprives a whole group of young people from experiencing a film that could bring so much benefit to their lives. Every teenager, gay and straight, ought to see this movie. It cuts through all the stereotypes and shows just how beautiful the love between two pretty regular guys can be. And their story is so moving that one would have to be pretty cold and hard not to root for Jamie and Ste and the triumph of their love. Indeed, I sometimes imagine that making it a required part of the high school curriculum could go a long way in freeing young people from fear and prejudice, and helping them all to become more loving and accepting people. And what an inspiration and beacon of hope it could be for young gay people looking for a way to love and a reason to hope!

You will be glad and grateful for seeing this movie. In fact, you will not be able to see it just once -- you will want to see it again and again. Which is why you will want to buy it -- that's what I did!