Center of my world was a coming of age tale about a 17 year old boy name Phil who is gay. He comes home from a trip to find that a storm has destroyed much of his hometown. This storm is also a metaphor for the relationship between his sister and mother which is now much worse than when he left. The relationship is strained and he hangs out with best friend Kat who tells him about the new boy in school who he soon meets and falls for. The boy returns the affection and a passionate relationship begins. He also is friends with the lesbian neighbors who give him the keys to their shed so he has a place for his affair with new boy Nicholas. However things at home aren't going so well, and he ends up leaving and stays with the neighbors for awhile as his relationship with Nicholas becomes stronger. Soon the two of them and best friend Kat start hanging out, and then something happens that flips Phil's world upside down, and this is a point I find troublesome. This is where the movie could've shown different viewpoints of other characters. There are hints about what happens, but because we only have Phil's Pov we dont see how things ended up the way they did through others eyes, and its make certain characters seem shallow, when they didn't seem that way at all earlier in the story. Soon after this turn of events, Phil returns home to mend things with his family. It is here that he succeeds after much sadness and pain, and the story becomes about family dynamic and that is the main theme of the story. The story ends on with Phil heading off to America and knowing that his family is the center of his world. The story was strong, the scenes beautiful, and the acting passionate and good, especially from Lewis Hoffman and the woman who plays his Mom, but other viewpoints could've been used to better understand certain character's motivations and actions. I give it a 7.
Review of Center of My World
