Customer Reviews

Under One Roof

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This movie answers the question: What would happen if a closeted gay guy should happen to fall in love with a tenant in his unsuspecting mother's house? This sweet movie, while far from being polished, is still very absorbing.

I began watching this movie somewhat conscious of the fact that this was not a big production. As is the case with many low budget gay films it makes up for in story what it lacks in production value. About 10 minutes into the movie I found myself completely involved in the story and characters.

Jay, a closeted young man, still lives with his mother and grandmother in San Francisco. While there are others who he is out to (his female best friend who his mother is desperately trying to set him up with, and his very out gay best friend who keeps trying to set him up with anything that moves)he keeps his sexuality a secret from his mother who he feels would not approve. That is until the day his mother rents their basement apartment to Robert, an adorable gay guy, and things start to immediately heat up.

Should he risk losing his mother's approval on what could be true love...or risk losing the man of his dreams?

Okay, first a word of warning: don't go looking for top-notch Hollywood production quality in this movie -- it's nowhere to be found in "Under One Roof". The script needs work; the editing leaves much to be desired; the acting is pretty bad; the music is even worse.

And I loved it.

Despite its technical flaws, I found myself wrapped up in the story pretty quickly, and by the time the end came along, I was grinning from ear to ear. "Under One Roof" may never win any production awards, but the story is solid and there are many great moments during the movie that had me laughing out loud.

As I said earlier, don't look for A-list production quality. It's more like a film class project meets "The Real World" meets public access television meets soft core porn. Let me clarify that I don't say 'porn' because of the full-frontal nudity or the sex scenes -- they are almost always appropriate to the story in context (and the guys are cute!). Plus, I've seen MUCH more explict hetero sex scenes on network TV. I said 'porn' because that's what the acting and music quality reminded me of several times throughout the film.

Despite the weak acting overall, however, there were some very real moments which struck a chord with me. When they happen they really stand out, at least to me.

I gave it four stars and higly recommend it. If you overlook the technical shortcomings and approach it with an open mind, you'll find a touching little love story with quite a few laughs. I'll keep this one in my collection.

I can't disagree with others that this wasn't a great movie. It's certainly low-budget, not well directed or edited, and decidedly amateurish. But it's entertaining and fun, and maybe hits a few chords just a little too close to home.

Daniel, the perfect Asian son, lives with his widowed mom and his grandmother in San Francisco, as filial Asian boys tend to be expected to. Also in the vein of the perfect son, he can't come out to his family, and his mom relentlessly keeps trying to set him up with women.

The family rents out the downstairs room, however, and a cute boarder (Robert) shows up to take the place. Sure enough, the two slowly but surely get together....

This movie is not totally about Daniel and Robert's budding romance. Well, it is, but there's more to it than that. The magic of the movie is the family's reaction, Daniel's newfound priorities, and how Robert's unassuming yet formidable role in each. It's the standard stuff the coming-out flicks are made of, but hey, it always manages to tug at the heartstrings, right? We've all been there before, or know someone who has.... or at least we all know how difficult it is to stand up against unreasonable expectations.

So yeah, everything about this DVD just screamed "so-so"... but it's still worth a viewing. Oh, and because this IS a DVD, after all... don't forget to take advantage of the special features, including the Director's Commentary cut. Some interesting tidbits in there.

This movie answers the question: What would happen if a closeted gay guy should happen to fall in love with a tenant in his and his unsuspecting mother's house? This sweet movie, while far from being polished is very absorbing.

I began watching this movie and was somewhat conscious of the fact that this was not a big production. As is the case with many gay films, it makes up for in story what it lacks in production value. Still, about 10 minutes into the movie I found myself completely involved in the story.

Jay, a closeted young man still lives with his mother and grandmother in San Francisco. While there are others who he is out to (his female best friend who his mother is desperately trying to set him up with and his very out gay best friend who keeps trying to set him up with anything that moves)he keeps his sexuality a secret from his mother who he feels would not understand. That is until the day his mother rents their basement to Robert, an adorable gay guy, and things start to heat up immediately.

Should he risk losing his mother's approval on what could be true love...or risk losing the man of his dreams?

I went to the store, picked up "Under One Roof" and noticed on the back cover that it received all sorts of awards. I was surprised about this because I did not recall reading many enthusiastic reviews on Amazon about this movie. Well, I was just too curious to let this go so I went a head and took the movie home thinking "hec, this movie cannot be a true disaster because it received many reputable awards". I raced to my bedroom, closed the door, dimmed the lights, took a deep breath, got really comfortable, turned on my portable DVD player, and quietly watched the movie. Well, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Yes, the acting and dialogues were quite stiff and most of the technical aspects of the film needed much rework. For some strange reasons, perhaps it was due in part to this amateurishness that gave the film some of its youthful, inexperienced charm. Anyway, I think the film does have a convincing story line - witty, touching, and sexy. Give the movie a try. You will be surprised.

I made the mistake of believing some of the provocative stuff on the back of the box about 'a mix of love story with exploration of cultural diffeneces' or some such... what I got instead was a standard gay soap opera. It was cute, and I didn't mind the production values or performances at all, and the sex scenes were very sweet and sexy, but at a more intellectual level this seemed to promise so much only to then fail to deliver. This would be ok were it not for the fact that the hype around this seems to present it as some sort of exploration of White/Asian interactions in the gay community. Given how non-white guys are oft viewed (if we are recognized at all) as trophies among some in the gay community (speaking as as a non-white gay guy), if we are willing to play out certain stereotypes, I assumed this would be quite a provocative theme to explore. No such luck here.

I don't care what the description might lead you to believe - don't look for anything smart here. It's a nice gay soap opera - which is great at that level. Look for anything eles though and you'll be disappointed.

-David Alston

This film has won many awards, and now I know why! I love it! The two hot young stars, Jay Wong (Daniel) and James Marks (Robert) are great together in "Under One Roof". Their chemistry is awesome and they appeared to have enjoyed doing this film together as evidenced not only in the film, but the outtakes as well. A must see movie for anyone who loves gay themed films. It is dramatic, funny, romantic, erotic and adventurous. A great cast and a wonderful story blend together with great directing and a really well done film. Not a top notch Hollywood budget, but unless you're just looking to criticize, you will never notice. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it, and enjoyed the second run-through just as much. The DVD offers some nice extras as well, such as outtakes, a trailer and more. Video and sound quality is good. I have no beef whatsoever with anything I seen in this film. I highly recommend it! A very nice "feel good" movie with a happy ending.

Yes, it's low budget. Yes, it's not refined. That is precisely what makes this movie special and believable. It is almost like a watching a documentary about a young man reaching a crossroads in his life and nearly botching it, simply because he has never been at such a crossroads before. I know the acting is not refined. While I was watching the film I came to believe the two actors were lovers before they started filming, reliving what had happened to them in real life. Of course, they weren't. I forgot they were acting. The script doesn't sound like a script. It sounds like real people talking. This is the way two fairly vanilla people of whatever gender do fall in love. Seems to me something so true to life can't be bad. Another reviewer came down hard on the woman playing the young man's mother. She sounded to me precisely like Chinese-American women of her age I have heard on the street in NY or San Francisco. They don't speak English with the same intonation as Tom Brokaw. Yes, the ending is predictable, or is it? No one in the film comes down with AIDS. Now isn't that a switch? It is simply a typical love story with the young people in conflict with a traditional parent. It's almost, "oh, by the way, the two protagonists happen to be of the same gender". That's its strength, taking a predictable story, dropping two guys instead of a guy and girl into it, and acting like it is the most natural sort of film in the world.

I watched this movie the other night with some straight friends. Sure, the director seems to be scoring some attention by showing some (really modest!) nudity, but the plot is intelligent and takes some unforeseen turns. The leading motive of two cultural backgrounds clashing might be disaggreaveated by the fact that the main character, a young asian twenty-something guy, is living with his mother after his dad died a few years ago. So there is only the mother-son conflict about the gay son shown.

However, the director develops those characters wisely and takes time and empathy to push the plot forward. So we learn about the inner feelings of the main characters, their fears and doubts. Thus, in the end, we are left with the encouraging fact that most of our fears about being gay are just internal and are not in fact backed up by real arguments. The mother learns to love her son and her new son-in-laws in the end.

It's refreshing that the film does not try to score political arguments about the two cultural backgrounds gettings along, but shows normality.

And by the way, it features some real nice shots of San Francisco, the city where I live. Now watch the movie!

The acting wasn't the greatest, but the movie itself was good. I especially liked the ending. Must have been made on an extremely low budget. Again, another movie I am glad I added to my movie library.