The Way He Looks Reviews

Taking a short film, in this case I Don’t Want to Go Back Alone and blowing it up to feature-length can have unintended consequences of distorting the might and power of the original. Thank god that The Way He Looks extends that short’s empathy and compassion, and its minute details in which blossoming sexuality is not a hard and fast thing but an organic output of a shared connection. It’s these emotional details that make the warmth and sweetness of The Way He Looks so resonate.

 

It helps that the story is populated by the types of teenage characters that we don’t see often. Less the storybook clichés of American films learning to try and function something like normal humans and instead normal humans trying to gain autonomy and identity through complicated processes. Not only does The Way He Looks make the quest for sexual identity and autonomy one more physically tactile and emotionally nebulous, but it also wraps it around a disabled protagonist. We get a character that’s struggling for independence and authority over his existence on several levels, and it’s a joy to watch him triumph.

The Brasil's submission for the last concluded American Academy Awards, the 2015's Oscar edition and as we know it did not make that far. Again, one more movie in the list of 'based on the short film'. It also retained all the prominent cast and their respective roles for this full length feature. A teen romance-drama, a gay theme as well as a love triangle. Very light and softly narrated tricky romance theme and obviously suited well as a complete picture.

The story was told from the perspective of a blind high school student Leo. He and Gi are the friends since childhood. She's always there for him like a pair of eyes, a companion who walks with him home, only until a new student Gabe arrives. The things are starting to change around them and they begin to realise how much valuable to each other. What comes after is the crux of the story. The same old jealousy story, but from the fresh cast it looked so good.

In our eclipse, Gabriel would be the
Earth and you, the moon.

A successful domestic box office, critically acclaimed film and the better ratings in all the online movie database, but to me it was just a good movie. The story had adorable characters and the love tale was told in a cute way, though that was not enough for me to get excited. No offense, but the gay theme was the letdown, that doesn't mean I'm against the gay. I loved 'Love of Siam' and 'Bangkok Love Story'. Maybe because I'm a straight, though I had no problem with the movies like 'Water Lilies', 'Yes or No' and other lesbian movies.

It's a crazy world, full of crazy people and their crazy romances. Whatever the format is, the love is always sweet. I liked this film's concept, if it was reversed from the gay to the lesbian, probably I would have loved it more. Or the story structure and character development in the first half should have been improved. Because in the end part, looked everything hurried and forced to conclude. Don't listen to me, you might like it, but be cautious, especially don't go after it with a great expectation seeing plenty of praise everywhere.

7/10