John Moses

Matthew Lopez has taken Casey McQuiston's story about two barely late teenagers with hot pants (and serious crushes) and turned it into a film about two middle 20's young men who fall in love and then, each and together, take control of their destinies. The complication to all this is the fact of who they are: one an English prince, the other the son of an American president. Lopez' 2-hour romance breaks ground for gay love stories by allowing his principals to go from dislike to friendship to sexual attraction to love--love that incorporates remarkable tenderness--tenderness that many gay romances hint at in their conclusions but fall short of showing much of during their lengths. Lopez has further added delight by casting two stunning young men as his heroes, a pair whose chemistry is so great it is hard to imagine any others in their parts. Lopez has conquered the theatre before now but, with RWRB, adds screenplay writing and directing to his resume. quiston q

The casting of the scrawny Keira Knightley as the heroine of this faulty adaptation of a great novel is a major disservice to screen adaptations, especially as the BBC's 1995 version with Jennifer Ehle is so remarkable at capturing Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennett. Knightley doesn't look for one moment like a heroine from Austen's time period, not does she act like one. She is, to give her credit, a skilled portrayer of contemporary women (see her in the movie about the woman who is a muse for both Freud and Jung). Nor is she to be blamed for the deliberate mauling of a masterpiece which her director has indulged in. One scene, with the animals who inhabit the Bennett household (and who would never have been around in an Austen novel), brings this movie to life for a vulgar flickering moment.