Food of Love (Spain/Germany 2002)

The Gist:

18 year old Paul, an aspiring pianist with a promising future, is hired to be a page turner at a concert for a world famous pianist where he becomes an instant object of attention for both the pianist, Kennington, and Kennington's agent/boyfriend. Six months later while on holiday in Barcelona with his mother, Paul once again meets Kennington, where after some astonishingly cheesy pickup lines are said, they begin an affair that will impact their lives.  

Comments (with spoilers important and not):

Our young Ganymede is apparently so attractive that older gay men fall into such strong lust with him they easily ignore the fact that he's a self-absorbed cruel brat. A good thing for Paul considering he has a thing for older guys he'd never have a chance with if they paid attention to his personality. 

Beyond Paul, his mother is written as a hysterical willing victim (her husband having left her for another woman, and her son continually berating her for the crime of existing), and the Kennington and his agent/boyfriend are both little more than scared jerks. The end result of all this angst and people acting badly is that I never got around to caring about any of them.

I was instead distracted by a minor detail. Paul goes to New York for schooling. Once there he comes out of the closet and starts building his identity as a gay man, right at the same time as he goes from gifted, promising, upcoming musical talent to being merely competent with limited future. I assume there is not supposed to be a correlation between the two, but it's easily read that way, and the idea that being openly gay and happy destroys his musical talent seems... odd. 

Regardless of my issues, it's a good movie. The story is well told and well acted (more or less). I just didn't care about it. 

Women: 

Just two of any importance, Paul's mother and his music teacher. 

People of color:

No

  

Gratuitous nudity: 

Some quick butt shots

• Director: Ventura Pons
• Writer: Ventura Pons
• Actors: Kevin Bishop, Paul Rhys, Juliet Stevenson
• 112 min
• Based on the novel The Page Turner by David Leavitt
• IMDB