Shelter - a pleasant coming of age film with some gay adoption rights debate in the background

{FILM DIARY}

Shelter (USA, 2007)

Seen: Thursday, 1st April 2010 (cinema, LGBT retrospective)
Runtime: 97′
Director: Jonah Markowitz
Cast: Trevor Wright, Brad Rowe
Production House: GP Pictures
Plot: (from imdb)

When his college dreams are sidelined by family obligations, a young man finds comfort in surfing with his best friend’s brother.

Trailer

Rating: +0 (Liked It)

Impressions In Short
It’s basically a pleasant coming of age movie.

More About the Film
It reminded me a bit of Tan Lines. Unsurprising as the plot is rather similar - the lead character in both is a young man who is slowly discovering he’s gay and develops a thing for his best friend’s older brother. And both films have a surfing theme. But I thought Tan Lines was a lot funnier and I enjoyed it more ;-P Still, Shelter is a much more professionally made film and it’s interesting to see it entering the debate about whether gay couples should have adoption rights.
Zach is clearly a much better carer for Cody than his sister (the actual mother) and yet she demands that he stops seeing Saun for Cody’s sake (even though she continues seeing men who are much less child-friendly). A lot of the film is about that unfair prejudice and it makes a convincing argument I think.

Recommended?
Yes if the theme interests you. Not a must-see though.

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