Apart From Hugh

By: Scott Cranin
In-House Review - Mar 18 2005

This low-budget film, while sincere and affectionately gay, fails both dramatically and technically as either a gay romance or character study. For the drama about two young men's struggle to maintain their individual independence and their commitment to each other is handed deadly blows with its laborious plot, slow-as-Bergman pacing, less-than-professional acting and a heavy-handed somberness that drags both the film and its viewers into a near catatonic stupor. Living in rural domesticity, Collin and the Hugh find their seemingly happy relationship undergoing a potential crisis when the vaguely discontented Collin contemplates leaving. Apart from Hugh is a too-gentle slice-of-life story, filmed in black and white, that stresses the complexities and nuances of the relationship at the expense of any audience-involving drama.