Director Neil Armfield has been away from the silver screen for too long – last gracing us with the hard-hitting Candy in 2006 – which makes his return with this adaptation of Timothy Conigrave’s beloved memoir all the more splendid. Holding The Man is a simple yet deeply moving account of a great romance, told with genuine warmth, humour and astonishing intimacy.
17-year-old aspiring actor Tim (Ryan Corr) can’t take his eyes off John Caleo (Craig Stott), a star football player at his all-boys Jesuit Catholic high school. So begins a relationship that for 15 years defies every attempt to tear it apart, from social pressures to familial politics to sexual liberation and the deterioration of the body itself.
While Holding The Man’s greatest strengths surely come from its source material, praise must be lavished upon the star-crossed lovers of this tale. Corr is a magnetic force that attracts and repulses in equal measure; though he makes for an unconvincing teenager, he is an endearing lead and foil to Stott’s complex, vulnerable and genuinely transformative performance. The support cast is also excellent, with particular reverence owed to Camilla Ah Kin’s mother in a house divided, and a very amusing cameo from Geoffrey Rush. Both the actors and screenwriter Tommy Murphy may take credit for the subtlety with which currents of guilt, desire and rage flow through the film without ever breaking the surface.
What sets Holding The Man apart from its soft-focus peers is its ever-present physicality and almost painful intimacy. We are constantly exposed to the body, in frequently graphic scenes of open sexuality that are shot in both a frank and tasteful fashion. Later, this carnality takes a darker turn as the AIDS epidemic of the ’80s rears its head, and the aching tenderness of a forbidden kiss through a flyscreen gives way to the horror of gloved fingers probing open wounds.
It’s also a profoundly Australian story, and Armfield has managed to tell it without any of the clumsy ockerisms or sentimental pandering that its contemporaries bandy about. He is unafraid of showing us at our best and our worst with little in the way of affect. There’s an absolute mastery of his craft on display, evidenced by a single extended shot near the film’s end, which is undoubtedly one of the most excruciatingly emotional moments you’ll witness this year.
Holding The Man is a triumph, as a reflection of our culture, how far we’ve come and how far we have to go; as an honest and powerful portrayal of modern life, love and sexuality; and as a simple, heartbreaking and enduring romantic tale. Ci vedremo lassù, angeli.
5/5 stars
Holding The Man opens in cinemas on Thursday August 27.
