This movie tries to balance out multiple viewpoints, but in the end, The Christians come off as judgmental and thin skinned and too many of the characters are stereotypes of people we can not stand.

At first I thought I wondered into a Christian movie, and then other characters start to pop up and by the time the movie is over, everyone has major problems, except Henry who is working it out as he goes along.

But ... I gotta say, a sweet and nuanced performance by the lead actor Cole Doman, anchored the movie and there were excellent performances from Patrick Andrews (manic),Elzabeth Laidlaw(mom) and Pat Healey (dad) who made the most of the material that they had to work with.

I watched this on Netflix as a lark. I was quite surprised to find it both enjoyable and meaningful. It is atypical of gay-content films as a genre. The 'gay' is more 'by the way' than 'hey, Mary".

Really liked the beginning and end. Cole Doman's face holds all the innocence of a somewhat pampered and conflicted middle class boy his age. The contrast between Henry and Logan, the awkward and out gay boy, is well done. The balance provided by smart-ass lesbian characters is not overplayed. The contrast between the twisted lives of the adults and the openness of the youngsters is also well written. The way Henry's older sister acts out that contrast is quite good.

This film is outstanding for its quiet subtlety about religious bias and its constriction of human vision and compassion. It unfolds gently with the exception of a slightly contrived crisis involving an ostracized gay man. I recommend it to non-religious people (like me) who may lump all religious folks into a single category.

The plot is that Henry Gamble is going to be seventeen and his father – Preacher Bob – wants to throw a big pool party to celebrate. As he is a preacher everything is going to be done the way Jesus would have wanted – but no alcohol, provocative music or other stuff that they make up as they go along. Thing is Henry is gay – but he is still in the closet although right from the get go you can tell he is bursting to come out.

Then the party starts and as the guests turn up it seems that everyone has baggage and they are also all struggling with then inner conflicts that go with faith and desire.

Now this has been applauded and panned in equal measure and the reasons are both valid. Firstly this is all about sex and sexual.ity but it is all talk and, quite literally, no trousers. Personally I think that is OK but for the nay sayers they are right in saying it is setting its stall out to attract the wrong audience. Also it does not deal with nigh o all of the issues that are raised, from sexual identity, faith conflicts, mental health issues or alcohol.

The thing is this is really well made. Despite any real dénouement the characters and their problems are very believable. It is well acted with only a couple of times where a character seems to be stepping into 'cliché-ville'. So am slightly torn, I actually did enjoy this though – hence my rating but as I said if you want a film with any real exploration of the issues that it is based on, then this will probably not rock your world.