When I fell into this film on a TV-channel I actually never before had watched, I found myself mesmerized. There was something pulling me into the stoat, and when I understood what was going on, it became even more interesting. I just couldn't let it go. I think the average rating on this film might have to be because of some homosexual scenes. These are made very beautiful and artistically, and far from any close ups. There's nothing distasteful about any of this.I must say I really enjoyed this immensely. The story is compelling, the acting is superb, and the direction is excellent. What's even better is that this movie has a drive towards something you don't know what will come out of.I really find myself loving movies you really don't know what to expect next from. This story has both a very pleasant and understanding tone, as well as a lingering unease, on a travel you hope is not a ending up as catastrophe. I found myself twitching in the sofa, while the this threesome tried to figure each other out. You all the way know who's to blame, but the excitement lies in what this will bring.You start caring about them, and see how dangerous such a nasty game is. Really deceitful and devious. But sometimes you get more than you bargain for, and I certainly did here. A very strong and different tale about deceit, that is really underrated. If you want to see something a bit different, this might be it.

The Dying Gaul is the bizarro-world tale of three slightly demented characters: Jeff (Campbell Scott) and Elaine (Patricia Clarkson), a Hollywood "power couple," and Robert (Peter Sarsgaard), a gay screenwriter whose script, titled "The Dying Gaul," Jeff purchases. Through their twisted sexual, emotional, and professional involvements, the three develop pathological intentions towards each other.From the start we see very quirky behaviors and affects in each character, and plot-wise the film grows ever-increasingly implausible as it progresses. Granted, there are gripping moments and situations, but in my view the movie fails to deliver enough substantial resolution or meaning, Lynchian or not, to justify all of its implausibilities.Moreover, the characters spout meaningless aphorisms and pseudo-profundities seemingly designed for the audience to puzzle over afterwards, but no matter how much one pores over the details of the movie, it seems to end up with no more depth or inner meaning than a kaleidoscope, and one full of plot holes at that.The movie relies heavily on the internet chatroom as a plot device. I have a feeling writer-director Craig Lucas's original stage play went over much better back in 1998, when AOL chatrooms, especially gay chatrooms, were new, fresh, and all the rage. A dozen years later, some gay chatrooms are still around and still used for hook-ups, but they aren't the heady new thing that they were back then. Add to this the incongruous plot device of a potentially poisonous plant, and the fact that the DVD has a second, alternate ending in addition to the already ambiguous original ending, and all these factors contribute to the film's being a near-miss.Acting-wise, Peter Sarsgaard is phenomenal, Patricia Clarkson is very strong, and Campbell Scott is slightly uneven and perhaps miscast. In the end, the star of the movie for me is a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the lovely Malibu canyon and the Pacific ocean. With a movie this involved, one should be left with more, but there seems to be nothing behind the surface intricacies of this uneven psycho-thriller.I think the film's worst problem is that it ironically does exactly what it blames Jeff, the Hollywood producer, for doing: It takes a plot (not unlike Robert's original screenplay) which is pro-gay and AIDS-relevant, and turns it on its head in order to make it non-gay or anti-gay for the purposes of box office numbers. The film makes Robert, the gay character, an eventual villain, and that destroys the central metaphor of the plot: empathy, which the famous ancient Roman statue of the Dying Gaul is supposed to evoke. In the end, when the Hollywood producer experiences his own grievous loss (not unlike Robert's and his original screenplay protagonist's losing a lover to AIDS), we the audience are not able to translate this into a mirror-image exercise in empathy and a gaining of empathy for the gay community and for AIDS victims and their loved ones. The fact that the film makes Robert a villain equal to the other two characters precludes this. And therein, in my opinion, lies the central flaw of what could in my mind have been an excellent film. (I have to at least try to give the film the benefit of the doubt though and say that maybe this bizarre doubly cruel irony is a meta-message, but if so I think it's far too abstruse for audiences to grasp.) In any case, some people may enjoy this film, if "Lynch lite" is their style, and if plausibility or coherence is not that important to them. Beyond that, in my opinion it's a mixed bag of somewhat questionable appeal.

Until it jumps the tracks near the end, THE DYING GAUL is an interesting and literate film about relationships and suffering. But when it goes to the bad it does so in a big way.Robert is a screenwriter who has written a script called THE DYING GAUL which derives from his own experiences. It's about a gay couple who sees the sculpture The Dying Gaul and how the pain of loss translates across the centuries. Robert has lost his life partner and is still suffering the loss.Jeffrey and Elaine are a very successful couple. He's a Hollywood producer and they live in a mansion which in and of itself makes the film impressive. Jeffery likes Robert's screenplay and offers him a million dollars for it, but with one catch. The film would be big budget and high profile, and to justify that the couple needs to be a man and a woman.To complicate matters, Jeffrey comes on to Robert. Big time.The material at any point could have veered into farce. Instead, writer/director Craig Lucas tries and- for a long time succeeds- in trying to plumb the depth of the characters' souls.Elaine begins to communicate with Robert through an online chat room. She pretends to be a man and, later, a man that Robert has known in the past. And this is where the story starts to unravel.Elaine begins to assume the personality of Robert's late lover and soon convinces him that he's communicating with a ghost, veering awkwardly close to making the story an updated BLYTHE SPIRIT.Eventually Jeffrey casually mentions to Robert how in Woody Allen's CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS a major character seeks to shed himself of an unwanted wife by homicidal means, and soon the project is off the tracks.And in the final scene Lucas has a major character do something so out of character, so irrational, so atypical.... How bad a miscalculation is this plot twist? So bad that Lucas can't bring himself to stage it. Instead, it takes place offstage and is revealed in a phone conversation.Flaws and all, this is still a mature and well thought out film. It's masterfully visualized and is a great vehicle for three talented performers. I'm convinced that fifty years from now film historians will be looking back and wondering why Campbell Scott wasn't a megastar from his first role on. As always his performance is rock solid.It's good to see a well produced film that's made for grownups and isn't a special effects nightmare. Check out THE DYING GAUL.

I really enjoyed this film, I was not sure where it was going to go - so that just added to the suspense. I thought the performances were all terrific and the plot held quite a few surprises - none of which were easy to anticipate. I loved the writing and thought it was a very intelligent representation of what can go wrong when human lust and emotions get out of control. The photography was superb and I would love to live in the house that is all through the movie. It is so interesting human behaviour and what can push us over the brink so to speak and this is primarily what this movie is about - human emotion and psychology and what us humans can be capable of - it is truly an original and spellbinding movie.