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                   "Mulligans"                                                 by Loren McLeod

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I saw “Mulligans,” featuring the adorable, and extremely busy Charlie David. That guy is everywhere: “Dante’s Cove,” “The F Word,” “Kiss the Bride” and elsewhere. I’m thrilled that an openly gay actor is so busy. More exciting for David is that he both wrote and co-produced “Mulligans,” which is the best film in which I’ve seen him.

The movie is superior to most gay dramas I’ve seen recently, and they include “David Searching,” “The Blue Hour,” “Sebastian,” “Into It,” and “Peoria Babylon,” among others. Of these, I only watched “Sebastian” in full, but that was only because it was so short. I saw “Mulligans” once and may watch it again before sending it back to Netflix. The script is generally strong, the direction steady and often inspired, and the cast is strong except for one actor: Charlie David.

To be fair, David is the only one in the movie I’ve seen before. Still, if he were strong he would have disappeared into his character, a college student named Chase. Not once in the ninety-minute movie did I forget I was watching Charlie David of “Dante’s Cove.” Indeed, every time he appeared onscreen I remembered I was watching a gay drama. Every other actor was pitch-perfect, which made David’s performance seem weaker. I don’t mention this lightly or to be mean as, overall, the story and production were terrific. He’s responsible for both, and two out of three ain’t bad.

As Nathan Davidson, the closeted father of David’s best friend, Dan Payne was perfect, and perfectly hunky.

His performance was understated, which was effective and a nice foil to Thea Gill’s.

Her performance as Stacey Davidson, Nathan’s wife, was more animated, and effectively so. Gill’s also in “Dante’s Cove” and lots of other stuff, including “Queer As Folk,” according to imdb.com. I knew I recognized her from somewhere, but as I’ve never seen full episodes of either show, I wasn’t sure. Derek Baynham as David’s best friend Tyler, was perhaps the strongest in the cast.

I believed he was a straight, horny, college dude. I believed everything he said and did, every word and gesture. He’s a find and I expect his talent and good looks to keep him very busy. Rounding out the cast is the completely adorable and precocious-without-being-irritating Grace Vukovic as Birdy Davidson, Tyler’s eight year-old sister. Another find, the best scenes in the movie included her and Baynham, especially when they were rolling their eyes at their parents.

“Mulligans” is a better-than-average movie and much-better-than-average gay indie. It is frequently moving and sometimes brilliant, but it has its flaws, and some of them are big. First among them is that any of the characters didn’t know Charlie David’s character was gay. It is clear by the way he walked and spoke, more clear in that there were no other gay characters, except the very masculine Nathan, to compare him to. As egregious, and perhaps more so, is the scene where Chase comes out to Tyler as they paint a fence somewhere. Tyler thinks he’s kidding at first, and then is like, “OK.” That’s it. In a later scene, he tells his father he hoped he said the right thing when Chase gave him the news. I reacted to this by saying, out loud, “Um, yeah, we should all have best friends as understanding and totally great.” In the same scene, Tyler advises his father that his sister Birdy has become a vegetarian. They both say stuff like, “Well, that’s different and unexpected, but maybe it’s good and maybe she should have been one all along,” or something. The metaphor was cringingly obvious. This is sort of forgivable, though.

A few more criticisms and then I’ll get to the good stuff…

Stacey just happens to catch Nathan and Chase kissing in the woods and Tyler just happens to catch Nathan and Chase kissing in the garage. The likelihood of mother or son catching father and best friend in a lip lock is a stretch. That they both did is too much. Charlie David can’t cry believably. The painting of the Davidson family Chase does is just OK and the family’s discovery of it is kind of an EEEEK moment.

OK, to the good stuff:

Charlie David is naked twice, but is shot only from the waist up. No one enjoys looking at naked handsome men more than I, but the director, Chip Hale, and perhaps David himself, realized the movie was strong enough that they didn’t need to titillate viewers for them to enjoy it.

Left alone at the Davidson house for a weekend, Nathan and Chase have some sexual tension that at one point leads the former to say to the latter, “You better leave.” It was a really good moment, understated and entirely effective. Rent the movie and fast forward to it. Later in that weekend, the characters run into each other in the kitchen. Nathan comes out to Chase and says, “I have no one to talk to.” Haven’t we all had no one to talk to about our gayness at one time? So button-pushing/moving. The men hug, then kiss, then go to the bedroom. The camera follows them from one room to the other from a distance. The men remove each other’s shirts, then sit next to each other on the bed, again, seen from a distance, outside the bedroom window, I think. Then the scene ends there. There’s no gratuitous sex, feigned or actual fucking, and no frontal nudity. So nicely done. Even nicer is the following scene where the men, in their boxers, sit next to each other on the living room couch sharing a carton of ice cream. “You’re so good looking,” Nathan says to Chase. “You are, too,” he says back. It’s the sweetest scene in the film.

Other really good moments, and you kind of have to be there for them:

•Early in the movie, Nathan approaches Stacey in their bed and asks if she wants to mess around. She seems surprised and hesitates, ruining the moment.

•Half drunk, a teary Stacey confronts her husband in their kitchen about having seen him kiss Chase.

•All the dinner table conversations, regardless of what combination of characters is in a given scene.

•Tyler’s reaction to discovering his father and best friend kiss. His rage and grief in that scene is so real it gave me goosebumps. In a later scene he and his girlfriend discuss the kiss as they sit on swings at a park. That bit was so well written, shot and acted I really wanted to clap. I mean it.

•After establishing his gayness to the family, Nathan and Stacey sit next to each other on the foot of their bed and talk about staying together as friends and maybe seeing other people. You get the impression here that this couple truly as been together twenty-plus years and that they really love each other. You think that they’re friendship and, perhaps, marriage, is going to survive and even be better. They nudge each other kind of playfully…wanted to clap then, too.

Family drama and politics, no matter the issue—I love it when it’s well done. It’s so well done in “Mulligans.” Charlie David and the rest of the crew and cast made a good movie here, one I hope makes them enough money to make more and inspired other, similarly talented people, to do so. Low-budget, obscure actors, and a Canadian setting don’t always mean a weak film. I’ve said it before, you just need a good script, talented actors and strong direction. All these elements are everywhere.

Oooo, I think I’m finally done.

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