Weekend (愛在週末邂逅時)

After an evening spent at a house party with his straight friends, Russell (Tom Cullen) heads out to a gay club and picks up Glen (Chris New), someone whom Russell first reckoned was “out of his league.”

On the morning after what both thought would be a one-night-stand, and still lying in Russell's blue sheets, Glen takes out a voice recorder and asks Russell to recount their encounter for an art project. Though Glen was the one who first started pressing for answers, Russell curiously has the upper hand, it seems, at the end of this coffee conversation, establishing the potential for the duo to be complementary equals.

Russell and Glen, while fully believable as in-the-flesh individuals, also seem like contrasting archetypes. The former, who works as a pool lifeguard and commutes by bicycle, is a non-confrontational introvert who often feels the pressure to conform around others. When his coworker talks in lewd detail about having sex with a woman, Russell listens quietly while finishing his cup of yogurt.

The latter, on the other hand, is an anguished rebel who works at a gallery and is set to leave the UK and study contemporary art in the U.S. When passers-by in the park below somehow know that there are two gay men up on Russell's 14th floor apartment and shout slurs at them, Glen retorts without a moment's second thought.

Whereas Glen is harshly individualist, coming out to his mother as a teenager saying “nature or nurture, it's your fault,” Russell is an orphan who grew up in foster families and thus lacks the perquisite for his rite of passage. Russell keeps a private journal of the men he meets while Glen keeps one — his art project — that is public and political. Whereas Russell glows vaguely; Glen cuts consciously — “I don't do boyfriends,” he says to Russell.

Over the course of a few days, we, along with Russell, get to know more about Glen behind his world-weary bad-boy front, seeing someone who has had his heart cleanly broken and his convictions decidedly forged.

The two men's drawn-out conversations, under the influences of several types of drugs, are eloquent and philosophical. For skeptics, perhaps it is already a great accomplishment for two people to be physically intimate and communicate their differences. Even the occasionally lost argument makes their mutual attraction sweeter.

The film impresses in bringing out contradictions between uttered words and unspoken sentiments. As a flourish, it also boasts considered cinematography that maintains visual interest during long dialogues. Moments such as when Russell stands by the pool where he works or when we look down from Russell's balcony to see Glen off, are everyday yet exquisite.

Though invigorating for frankly regarding sex and the body, “Weekend” feels claustrophobic at times as the characters shuttle between work, parties and sex. One may call the protagonists hedonistic as they inundate themselves with loud music and substances including alcohol, marijuana and cocaine. But as these stimuli become routine, they don't seem particularly ecstatic. Against this insipidly dense texture of life, the quiet budding of something special is perhaps all the more beautiful, and Glen's departure to start something new all the more substantial. ■

'Weekend' (愛在週末邂逅時) ► Directed by Andrew Haigh / With Tom Cullen, Chris New and Laura Freeman/ Drama, Romance / UK / 2011 / 97 min / English with Chinese subtitles / ★★★★☆ / Now Showing

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