With a clever Shakespearean title that reflects the story's setting in the world of classical music, director Ventura Pons' sincere but dramatically confused gay coming-of-age tale centers on a young California piano student (Kevin Bishop) whose stint as a page-turner for an established concert artist (Paul Rhys) leads to a brief affair. So long as Food of Love remains focused on this central relationship, it's reasonably compelling (the sequence depicting their initial encounter in a Spanish hotel room, for example, is moving rather than tawdry). Unfortunately, however, much of the narrative is devoted to the boy's mother (Juliet Stevenson), who at first believes that the older man is interested in her and then, when she discovers the truth, can't accept her son's infatuation and goes to extreme measures to obstruct the relationship--a narrative strand that, along with the scenes dealing with the pianist's longtime lover (Allan Corduner), is comparatively heavy-handed. The picture does, however, catch the clannish, competitive atmosphere of practice rooms and recital halls extremely well. Optional. (F. Swietek)
Food of Love
TLA, 105 min., R, VHS: $39.99, DVD: $29.99, May 27 Volume 18, Issue 3
Food of Love
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