Bedrooms & Hallways is a 300% improvement on Rose Troche’s previous film, Go Fish. The two films are utterly dissimilar in style and quality. While Robert Farrar’s clever, fresh and funny screenplay deserves some of the credit Troche’s direction is equally witty and enjoyable. She must have been practicing. The film tells the story of Leo – a gay man who has been confident of his homosexuality since his school days. Brendan, who’s been in a relationship with Sally, Leo’s ex-girlfriend, for the past seven years, knows that he is straight. When the three of them get together, however, they realize that sexual identity is not as absolute as they had previously believed.
Bedrooms & Hallways is a thoroughly entertaining film. It contains fun, vivid characters brought to life through sparkling dialogue and all around energetic and engaging performances. Kevin McKidd (“Trainspotting”), as Leo, is an accessible and sympathetic leading man while Tom Hollander (“Martha Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence”) steals the show as Leo’s theatrical, sexually adventurous friend and flatmate. While filmmakers must be credited with having the bravery to confront certain previously taboo areas of gay cinema the film ultimately does present a somewhat glib, Disneylandish attitude towards relationships. It also contains one two many suspensions-of-disbelief straining co-incidences. Overall, however, the film is funny, intelligent and consistently entertaining with slick production values and a fast paced story.
