Who's in It: Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Alicja Bachleda-Curus
The Basics: A teen German rowing-team captain struggles with coming out of the closet, and the movie struggles to make him not seem like such a tool.
What's the Deal? He's got a best friend he's in love with (straight, of course), a best girlfriend to confide in and a jock from a rival rowing team who wants him pretty badly. So, really, in the economy of teenage life, what's to complain about here? Yes, coming out is a pain, but it's not the sentence to clinical depression it used to be, and it'd be nice if movies about it weren't such a bummer all the time.
Coming Out Movie That Isn't a Bummer: It's called Beautiful Thing. It's from the late '90s. Go watch that instead.
Subgenre as Wish-Fulfillment: Really, who are movies like this made for? Sexually questioning young people with access to theaters that show foreign-language films? Adults who wish that back in the bad ol' days they'd even had half the chances this kid has to explore what it means to be gay? People who like to look at shirtless teenage boys? Fans of TV movies with subtitles? It's hard to know.
What's Good About It: The performances are all decent. And at least it doesn't feel like a dopey American teenage movie. But that's not enough.