Do the publishers of the Silhouette Romance novels have a line of romance novels for gay men? If so, the script for "Phoenix" would fit right in, for this is just a trifling romantic soap opera.
Dylan Wells, a twinkie in his early 20s, is seeing Kenneth Sparks, a traveling real estate agent whenever Sparks comes into L.A. for the weekend. Their "relationship" is nothing more than weekend sex sessions whenever Sparks is available. Sparks has been stringing Wells along by saying that he will meet his friends and that he will soon move in to live with Wells. A person doesn't need a three-digit IQ to know that Sparks is lying, and Wells should not have hung any expectations for a future with Sparks on what Sparks told him.
As shown here, Sparks is a short-tempered man arguing with his business associates. (He smokes, a sure sign this guy is the villain.) Although Sparks gives Dylan a small jug handmade from ClayMakers in Phoenix and tells Dylan it's a work of art, we later learn this was a gift that had earlier been given to Sparks and is not an expensive work of art at all.
On this particular weekend, Sparks leaves Dylan within hours after arriving, pleading business. The day after they part, Dylan impulsively decides to go to Phoenix, where Sparks told him he was going to deal with business. But when Dylan goes to the Mod Resort, where Sparks is staying, he does not find Sparks in residence, though Sparks has a room there. Posing as Sparks, Dylan manages to con a trainee at the front desk into giving him a key to the room. He finds none of Sparks' personal effects in the room.
Dylan phones the police, reporting Sparks as a missing person, and, quite improbably, Detective Smith comes around to interview Dylan, who is still occupying Sparks' room (improbable also). The police would not have responded to Dylan's call since Sparks was not a relative, nor were Sparks and Dylan legally married. Besides, Sparks hadn't been gone more than a day or two. But let's not quibble over small plausibility matters.
After his discussion with Detective Smith, Dylan searches out ClayMakers, where his jar was produced, and discovers that it is a one-man operation in the garage of the owner's home. The owner is Demetrius Stone, a chef in his mid- to late 30s, and, in short order, Dylan discovers that Demetrius and Kenneth Sparks have been partners for more than seven years.
So now, we have two betrayed men. What next? Well, what do you expect in a Silhouette Novel type plot? Demetrius and Dylan have sex, the two consoling each other in their betrayal. Over the next few days, Dylan falls in love with Demetrius, the speed of this emotional entanglement with Demetrius showing Dylan's' immaturity. Nonetheless, Demetrius and Dylan want the same things. As Demetrius says, "All I ever wanted was a husband, a house, and a kid I like." The plot promotes the current thinking in the gay world--become like a heterosexual couple! A few scenes between Demetrius and Dylan make it obvious to the viewer that the two are mismatched. To the film's credit, it doesn't give Demetrius and Dylan a happy ending. The two part as friends, and Dylan goes back to L.A., supposedly a wiser person The movie's tag line is "Every broken heart is a chance for a new beginning," so I assume that--phoenix-like--Dylan will arise anew from the ashes of his two broken "relationships" with Sparks and Demetrius. And, I'm sure, Demetrius will recover, too.
There is some obvious symbolism here in the title, the waves crashing on the shore, phallic rock formations, that anyone who has had an introduction to literature course in college will easily interpret.
The film has decent production values that belie its low budget. However, the sets look like displays of model rooms in a furniture store--all new and all impersonal. The same goes for details like dishes, sheets, wall decorations, kitchen appliances. However, some shots in Demetrius's home reveal it to be a real house-- mismatched kitchen cabinet doors, an older stove, and inexpensive dining room furniture.
The technical quality of the film (lighting, editing) is fine, as is the photography. There is nothing distinguished here, just quality work of the kind that often doesn't appear in low-budget indie films. The film's pace is slow in a few places, which had me looking at the décor in the background rather than the actors in the foreground.
The three leading men are all attractive in a generically handsome way. They're rather like the sets--nice looking and impersonal. Gaelano Jones as Kenneth Sparks does display a mean look that is appropriate to his character. Jeff Castle bears an uncanny resemblance to Cliff Robertson. Chad Bartley looks like the kind of guy who turns up regularly in gay porn films. He is the weakest actor here, but then he only has two IMDb credits, his other being a bit part.
Two older characters, Lewis and Gunther, unnecessary to the film, appear briefly in two scenes as lovers who've been together for about twenty years. They're stereotypes: have an open relationship, trade barbs with each other, and so on.
There is no frontal nudity here, though Bartley does some bare butt scenes. Jones keeps his underpants on throughout, and, although one scene has a naked Jeff Castle in bed, Chad Bartley is positioned in such a way that you don't ever see Castle's bare butt.
Finally, according to the IMDb, this film was Akers' attempt to remake Antonioni's "L'Avventura." Let's not even go there.
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