“I met him two days ago. He doesn’t know me and I don’t know him. We met two days ago. Two days is nothing,” said Tom Cullen’s character Russell to his best mate Jamie (Jonathan Race) in his goddaughter’s birthday party. They were talking about the wild but deeply introspective Glen (Chris New) who was about to board a train to live in America for two years or more. In reality, two days really is nothing, especially if we’re talking about falling in love or a budding romance, at the very least. But as Russell ate his sandwich, opened up to his best friend about a part of himself that he’s not fond of talking about, his eyes told much more. Cullen remarkably portrayed Russell’s feelings of confusion and conflict for a stranger he just met two days ago and with whom he spent the entire weekend with. But apparently, two days was not nothing as Glen affected Russell’s life without even knowing the latter’s last name.
If this is a perfect love story, then, Glen wouldn’t board that train and he’d be Russell’s boyfriend despite having qualms and reservations regarding the whole concept of relationships. And writer-director Andrew Haigh didn’t mean Weekend to be a chick flick film more than as his own personal essay about what it really meant to be gay in a hetero-normative society who said that they accept the gay community, but actually, merely tolerated it. Haigh’s script was perfect—he didn’t hold back talking about the topic at hand, but still remained sensitive.
If one would view the film from Glen’s perspective, Russell would be just plain dramatic. He was out, but not comfortable of being gay in public. At one point, after their non-penetrative supposed one-night stand, Glen asked Russell why he didn’t want to be fucked. Russell deflected the question, but Glen was persistent. He finally commented, “Did it make you feel too gay?” Tom Cullen– God bless him— replied with a fiery but confused stare and flat lips the same way Russell, his character, would actually reply. Instead, Haigh told much of the story from Russell’s perspective not only because he wanted the audience to see an in-depth view of the clearly much more interesting character that was Glen, but mainly because he wanted the audience to actually see Russell and his life, through his own eyes. And it was a powerful and effective tool as it emphasized how this wild whirlwind that is Glen affected Russell’s life.
Haigh didn’t only succeed in providing a story as sensitive and as important as Weekend, but he also triumphed in directing the film. Through his varying close-up and wide shots, Haigh gave breath to his script and it became this whole beautiful thing. And adding to the glory of the film was New and Cullen’s performances. Their subtle facial expressions and seemingly loud silences made the characters of Russell and Glen much more unforgettable.
A film’s objective is more than just to entertain. It can criticize, provide insights, and in this case, ask questions. Haigh posed a lot of questions through his film. Was Russell really out? But how would you really define “out”? Does it vary on the number of people who know it? But the most important one was one that Glen answered rather pessimistically: Does society actually accept the homosexuals? In one of the best moments of the film and definitely one of its most powerful scenes, Chris New’s character Glen ranted about how straight people would like the gay people if the latter conform to the former’s little rules. “Well, just trust me: They like it as long as we don’t shove it down their throats,” Glen added. “Because they shove it down our throats all the time: Being straight. Straight story lines on television, everywhere - in books, on billboards, magazines, everywhere. But, ah, the gays, the gays—we musn’t upset the straights.” Haigh was presumably talking about the British society where the movie was set, but his questions challenged every society in the world. Those are things that shouldn’t be asked about because this is already the modern ages. People are much more tolerable of the LGBT community, right? But Haigh, through his characters, said it’s not enough. His boldness to challenge the current societies’ mere toleration and the way he pointed out that it simply wasn’t enough made this film an essential and urgent viewing. And five years later, Weekend still remained as important and as relevant.
Overall Rating: 10/10
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