Back Soon
Reel Affirmations 2007
Review by Tom Avila
Rating: 
(2 out of 5)
Saturday, 10/13/2007, 1:00 PM
Feature presentation, $10 at Lincoln Theatre
BACK SOON IS as subtle as a box of lit firecrackers in a metal garbage can. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as interesting or entertaining.
Following the sudden death of his wife, Logan (Windham Beacham) decides he needs to sell their house and start over. He still feels her presence, still talks to her and keeps reliving the memories they built there together. With the ”For Sale” sign barely sunk in the front lawn, Gil (Matthew Montgomery) arrives at the front door. He tells Logan that he’s been driving by the house — as though he were drawn to it — for some time hoping that it would come on to the market. (Gil, it bears mention, is also a straight man.)
After Gil buys the house, he and Logan strike up a friendship that quickly morphs into an intimate relationship. But this isn’t a pedestrian ”love knows no gender” gay romance film. No, as the audience is browbeaten into recognizing, there is an otherworldly element to this relationship. There are flashbacks, mysterious coincidences and, yes, not one but two scenes that take place before a blinding white light.
What’s disappointing is that there is something intriguing about director Rob Williams concept and one wishes that he had taken the time to strip away some of the excessiveness that weighs Back Soon down. A few less quirky and highly stereotyped background characters, a bit more room to grow the relationship between Gil and Logan and a whole lot more subtle.
While this will not be the worst evening you’ve spent at the movies, it is unlikely that you’ll leave wanting to come back soon.
While boasting several sly and almost clever winks to the man in the title, the short Hitchcocked () seems more like a story you would tell your friends at a bar than the makings of a good film. Some will enjoy the sexual content and tension of the short, while others will wish they had only caught a glimpse of it out their rear window as they drove away. — TA
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