Pluskylang Great Film overall

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Laakbaar This movie tells the story of what happens one week to a number of gay men in and around Clapham Junction, a well-known gay cruising area in London.The characters include various gay men who visit the park, including a gay couple, two or three closeted married men, a teenage musician, an amoral park lothario, a basher and his victims. The movie captures the excitement and danger of park cruising, but without showing the eroticism. Gay bashing is a major part of the plot.In one narrative, we follow sexy but tortured Tim, a suspected pedophile, as he is seduced by 14-year-old Theo. There is no doubt who is the aggressor. Tim, who apparently likes them young, is helpless. (I agree with the other reviewers that this scene is powerful and erotically charged. However, it would have been more disturbingly realistic if the actor playing Theo actually did look 14. He looks more like 19. This robbed the scene of its shock value.) However, in the end, Tim must face the acidic wrath of a demented mother who knows nothing about her son, and perhaps does not wish to.All these characters are neatly linked, and not just by the geography.The final scene shows the musician's smashed violin, complete with sad music. I get it. Clapham Junction is not a happy place. Cruising in a park is double plus ungood, and not just because of the violence. Gay men are victims. Resist temptation at all costs. The picture this movie paints is a dark one. A stereotypical one. We are living in a world of hysterical mothers, gay bashers lurking in the bushes, and desperate gay men with unacceptable urges.Yes, these are stories that should be told, I suppose, but...surely there are also a few happy gay stories in and around Clapham Junction? The movie feeds on the stereotype of gay men as unhappy creatures leading pathetic lives. Sorry, but it's not realistic, is it?

chrisjay00-1 After much publicity by Channel 4, Clapham Junction started off slow and honestly quite dull. As time went on the plot line began to pick up yet you were still unable to empathise with any of the characters. The programme was cliché ridden and also contained scenes which were pointless at the very least. Three quarters into the show everything began to get confusing again. The character played by Paul Nicholls was also very confusing. Was he gay? Was he straight? There was a very dark mood throughout the whole programme which continued even to the end. As the end approached, i found myself asking questions about what would happen to certain characters. I was sure this would appear on the screen before the end credits. It didn't. And so the audience is left with not only a cliff hanger but also many questions about most of the main characters unanswered. Good performances by the actors involved but i can't help but feel that had some of the pointless scenes been cut, the running time could have been shortened and the programme could have concentrated on a lot less pointless characters. I also felt slightly confused by the inclusion of the small black child playing the violin at certain periods in the programme. By the end the dark mood became even darker when all that was left was his smashed up violin under a bridge. Cue the end credits. All in all a huge disappointment

hesketh27 Good performances. OK - now wev'e got the only positive comment about this TV film out of the way, let's have a look. What the hell was the point of this? Populated by a group of unpleasant, unlikeable stereotypes, it really looked like something that would have been made 20 years ago. Cliché ridden and unrelentingly grim throughout, the gay characters were either predatory, seedy individuals or had serious repression/hang up or psychological problems. The sex and violence scenes were sensationalist to say the least. This was meant to be part of C4's marking of 40 years of the liberation of gay men from the previous institutionalised repression they had suffered in this country throughout history. There are gay men like the ones in the film, I sometimes meet them, but they certainly do not represent the majority. Nobody wanted to see a positive propaganda exercise about gays, but neither did we want to see this parade of sad / damaged individuals. Whatever happened to balance? A piece of TV that was thoroughly depressing and ultimately, totally pointless.

kevinmcginness I was extremely exited when i heard the 40th year since homosexuality was decriminalised was to be marked with this one off drama, and was looking forward to clapham junction giving an insight and celebrating the changes that society has made in dealing with homosexuality in 21st century Britain.I was profoundly disappointed to see that the programme makers decided to concentrate on negative stereotypes of promiscuous partners, horrendous homophobic attacks,closeted husbands and predatory homosexuals preying on underage boys.this type of drama into gay lifestyle gives an untrue representation of how modern gay people live their lives showing that nothing much has changed from the stereotype of the 1950s and 60s. The writers had a massive responsibility and opportunity to show a positive and refreshing view on the matter, particularly for younger people struggling to come to terms with sexuality. Sadly they opted for drama rather than fact.