Holding The Man

'The warm, funny and achingly sad story of the 15-year-long love affair between Timothy Conigrave and the boy he fell in love with at high school, John Caleo.'

Although the Australian film came out in 2015, I just discovered, then quickly watched. the beautifully poignant, Holding The Man.  The romantic drama was adapted from Timothy Conigrave's 1995 memoir of the same name.  Directed by Neil Armfield, it stars Ryan Coor as Timothy and Craig Stott as John. Also appearing in the film were actors;  Guy Pearce, Anthony LaPaglia, Sarah Snook, Kerry Fox and Geoffrey Rush. 

The screenplay was written by Tommy Murphy who also adapted the memoir for the stage play.  Given the subject matter, AIDS in the 1980's, there are many sad and emotionally moving moments.  All great drama's however, need a lightness, scenes to break the heaviness of the main, driving story.

Often, the light scenes involve a little male nudity. In Holding The Man, we get the two main characters, along with three of their friends, (one reluctantly), stripping down for a late night streak down one of the town's main streets.  Stott previously appeared nude in 2008's East of Everything, but I believe this was Corr's first time taking it all off.  He's since however, appeared nude in the series Bloom. 

As tough as the subject matter and story were, I really enjoyed Holding The Man, and the performances from the two leads, and the entire supporting cast.  Having not watched Succession, (yet), this was I think, my acting introduction to actress Sarah Snook. I certainly knew who she was however, seeing her quite a bit during this year's award season.