Customer Rating: 
Summary: Coming Together
Comment: "Amazing Grace"
Coming Together
Amos Lassen
With AIDS as a backdrop, "Amazing Grace" is a film that explores two families, each with a gay son. Jonathan (Gal Hoyberger) is leaving his boyfriend Miki because Miki cheats on him. One day he sees Thomas, the son and grandson of neighbors. Thomas has returned to Israel after he failed at being a musician in New York; he is not well, feeling detached and looking for drugs. Jonathan tries to connect with him but has a hard time doing so. At the same time, Thomas's grandmother has become bitter as she has aged and that bitterness is aimed at Thomas's mother. Both women worry about Thomas, Jonathan's family manage their relationships despite in-fighting and bickering and Jonathan is facing adulthood. What bring the two families together are the gay sons.
Even though this is an Israeli film, the story is universal. What happens in the film could happen anywhere and probably does. "Amazing Grace" looks at family values, romantic and familial relationships and characteristics of various age groups. The film makes no judgments but it presents issues straightforwardly. The characters attempt to work out their problems and we are only observers.
The treatment of AIDS is gentle and subtle as is the look at gay life, old age, dying and death. Amos Gutman directed this with love and admiration and it is (for now) his only full length film available in the United States. He gives us a simple story but with complex characters.
When Jonathan first sees Thomas he is love struck and makes serious attempts to speak to him but Thomas is reluctant to become involved because he has AIDS. Jonathan does not know this and keeps pushing until one day the two find solace in each other. However this relationship is not to last and there is a sense of dread throughout the film. There are several beautiful scenes of passion and tenderness which are quite rare, especially in a movie made in 1992. The ending, however, really does not satisfy.
What really makes this movie so special is the way it examines family relationships, especially those of Thomas's mother and grandmother. Amos Gutman keeps us involved with the characters and this could be the reason that when reconciliation comes at the end of the movie, there is no feel of joy.
It is truly sad that we have lost Amos Gutman. His movies are beautiful and he did so much to advance gay cinema, not only in Israel but everywhere. Watching "Amazing Grace" again last night reminded me of what a treasure is no longer with us.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: OK drama
Comment: It's been some time since I watched this, but I remember it as a good experience. It tells the frustrating relationship between a somewhat aimless young gay guy and a depressed HIV+ older one who just came back from New York and is now his neighbour. Also we see the young guy's tense relations with his family.
The dvd image is fullscreen, soft but nice. The movie seems to be shot with those filters that give some aura to things, especially where light hits directly. The subtitles are not optional.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Like a hidden treasure that waits to be found.
Comment: Amos Guttman's 1992 independent film "Amazing Grace" is like a hidden treasure that waits to be found. Featuring a simple story filled with emotionally complex characters, it is like a novel that unfolds at a slow but steady pace, stopping for small moments of tenderness, warmth, angst, bitterness, and realization. The film suffers from a lack of focus at times, while the ending leaves us wishing for something more, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that all of this wasn't, in some weird way, entertaining. Set in Israel, the story centers around young Jonathan (Gal Hoyberger), a twenty-something who spends his days cleaning up after his messy roommates, watching over the children in his mother's nursery, and longing for the affection of his friend, Miki, who spends his nights with various sexual partners. Surrounding him is an array of diverse characters: his promiscuous, carefree sister, his imaginative brother, his pestering yet ultimately caring mother, and soon, Thomas, how has returned to his mother's home after a long stay in New York.
Jonathan is immediately stricken with love when he lays eyes on Thomas. He makes various attempts at conversation, all of which flatline due to Thomas's reluctance to become involved for fear of spreading AIDS. Jonathan, unaware that his newfound interest carries the fatal disease, continues to press on, until one day, the two find solace in one another.
But, like many relationships, this one cannot hope to last, and throughout the film, despite the happiness we feel for their bond, there is a sense of dread that hangs over the two that is hard to ignore. One may find a reluctance to accept the relationship due to Thomas's strikingly harsh attitude towards Jonathan, but it all becomes clear, once we are made aware of his situation, what his intentions are. There are scenes of tenderness and passion here unmatched by many other films, building us up to an ending that leaves loose ends untied.
The real gem of the film is its examination of family relationships, most notably that of Thomas's mother and grandmother, who spends her days in bed, nagging her daughter and cursing her pains. The two spend a great deal of the film bickering, until there comes a quiet moment when the two come to an understanding of one another's tribulations in life. Guttman is careful to keep us involved with these characters, making it hard for one not to feel a sense of joy when their reconciliation arrives.
Jonathan's family life is somewhat more disarrayed. His absence from home has left his mother with a severe case of empty nest syndrome, leading her to depend on him even more now that he lives on his own. They bicker consistently, but it's not without an understanding that they love each other. His relationship with his siblings is a typical big brother-type bond: he offers them advice, sometimes not always what they want to hear. It's as if he wants more for them than what he has for himself.
The movie tends to lose itself into its character examinations, coming out of them without a clear sense of where it must go next. As a developing story, it is somewhat bleak, but if taken in the context of a day-in-the-life piece, it takes on a rich quality that deserves attention. By film's end, we have come to an understanding of Jonathan's life, his wants, his needs, and wish him nothing but the best.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Tale of two Isreali families each with a gay son.
Comment: Jonathan is splitting from Miki after Miki convinced him to get an apartment and move in together. The more experienced, draft dodging, Miki is seldom home and is sleeping around. Meanwhile Miki's sister and her dope-dealing friends are always there. When Jonathan sees Thomas, the son and grandson of his neighbors, sunning himself in the apartment courtyard, Jonathan is smitten. Thomas left Israel for New York years ago to study music but has come back to Israel after contracting AIDS. Although Jonathan tries to connect with him, Thomas insists on remaining detached. Thomas is ill, and in search of hard drugs, not a relationship. But the story is also about each boy's family. Thomas's mother is a seamstress who works out of her home. While Thomas has never "come out" to her, she suspects and is astute enough to realize that something is wrong. Meanwhile, Thomas's grandmother is ill and is hypercritical of her daughter. Both women worry about Thomas but seem to take out their tensions by sniping with each other. Jonathan's mother runs a small nursery (day care center) where Jonathon works. His brother and sister also work there from time to time and all have awkward relationships with the openly gay if somewhat inexperienced Jonathan. The portraits of each of the family members in both families are well drawn and the story is consistently interesting if a bit bleak.
