The Line of Beauty

The Line of Beauty (2006, Saul Dibb)
If the pleasure of reading and film watching differ, then books are more closely like lovers: we create them in large part in our minds, and the act of reading is sexual in the sense that we collaborate with the words on the page, in the same way as we do in sex with our partner. We control the speed at which we read; with a film, we are slaves to the tempo, we allow sensations to wash over us. That extra effort involved in reading may be why we grow so attached to books, and to characters. I think Saul Dibb's interpretation of Alan Hollinghurst's "Line of Beauty" novel does some justice to that pleasure we derive from reading. Fittingly divided into a three-part mini-series format, the segments are not unlike novel chapters, and while I wouldn't describe Dibb's film as epic, he does, by the nature of his allowed time, present enough different characters and points of story to make us feel as if we're leaving something behind. He specializes in a kind of ache, the combination of stiff BBC values and the romanticism of New Order and Spandau Ballet.

I'm not sure if gay life in the '80s is the most profound dramatic subject matter in recent history, but it's certainly what I respond most strongly to, and it's rich for creating drama. This, in Britain, has to its advantage the backdrop of pride and hypocrisy in government, the unrelenting AIDS, and a drug- and sex-fueled nightlife for young people. The film accurately presents the camaraderie lifestyle of gays that seems in decline now; men of all ages, young and beautiful and old and decrepit, swimming in all-male beaches. The charming duplicitous nature of some men who have sex with men is beautifully portrayed by one storyline concerning an exotic, gorgeous Lebanese heir (Alex Wyndham) who feigns heterosexuality to the outside world as he indulges in cocaine and orgies with any men who want him. I admire how the film doesn't moralize with sex or drugs; my own moral compass gets uneasy when I see decadent cocaine use and casual sex, but the film rightly allows its characters their pleasure, regardless of the foreboding we may sense knowing more than the characters do. The main Nick character, who is taken in by the rich political family, is at one point on the receiving end of a critical speech about the leeching nature of gays, and the sense of depression is finely wrought out, as he is in the unfortunate position of being somewhat beholden to the family and having no option but to take the abuse and quietly slink away.