Reviewed! Holding the Man …

It’s the mid-70s and when the captain of the football team just so happens to be a hunky – if rather short – Italian boy with deliciously thick eyelashes, you can bet there’s a love story on the way.

Holding the Man is a love story and a tragedy. But this is no puke-fest, and nor is it a Shakespearean soliloquy. It’s a bloody good love story with a bloody sad ending.

Watching a film like Holding the Man – based on the memoir by gay activist and actor Tim Conigrave – reminds you of what love really is. It’s a welcome departure from the so-often feebly-plotted Hollywood films or the attempts of advertisers to make us feel unworthy of the connection we all want.

The truth is that loving someone is simply about loving them, worshipping their body sometimes, putting up with their shit at other times, but sticking together as a team.

Holding the Man is a seminal gay text and an Australian classic, which had since been developed into a well-loved theatre adaptation. The book was published in 1995, posthumously and shortly after Conigrave’s death, which in itself was a few years after his lover’s John Caleo’s passing, both of an AIDS-related illness.

Their courtship is unbelievably dorky, and unbelievably beautiful – just as all teen romances should be. Tim calls John on the blower, his mum embarrassing him mercilessly by yelling out something about not getting phone calls during dinner-time.

Tim explains to John that they’re having casserole. John replies that his family is having chops and peas. Tim asks bluntly: “John, will you go round with me?” And John doesn’t hesitate in answering: “yes”.

What follows is a 15-year relationship of an absolute and steadfast love – albeit one that goes through its fair share of ups and downs with infidelities, conflicting interests, family and school disapproval, and the fact that Tim so desperately wants to pursue his career as an actor in Sydney while John wants to stay home and work as a chiropractor.

Tim rises to levels of narcissism at times while John retains his gentle, calm demeanour. Ultimately, things work out and they settle into a loving monogamy, but by this stage, the gorgeous young couple has succumbed to the scourge of the 1980s – HIV infection.

Ryan Corr (Packed to the Rafters, Wolf Creek) delivers the role of Tim Conigrave beautifully, while Melbourne uni student Craig Stott is exceptional as “that beautiful boy”, John Caleo. The pair is joined by some megastar Australian favourites including Guy Pearce as Tim’s dad, Anthony LaPaglia as John’s dad and Geoffrey Rush, who is perfect as a NIDA teacher.

The 1980s styling is perfect – not ridiculous and over-the-top as so often happens – and accurate to a tee, complete with vol-au-vents, bowl-cut hairdos and dorky denims. Director Neil Armfield (Candy) has done a stellar job with the material, delivering a film that does justice to the theme and no doubt to what Conigrave would have wanted.

Perhaps one of the key elements of this film is its somewhat divine timing – with the gay rights movement holding unprecedented levels of support, this is a film with broadscale mass appeal rather than being some kind of “special interest” flick kept aside for arthouse cinemas.

The fact the film is screening at mainstream cinemas like Village, alongside all the usual popcorn guns-and-babes blockbusters, is testament to that.

Holding the Man will screen at the State Cinema from August 27.

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Amber Wilson