Stranger by the Lake (2013)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

When a film is billed as a "tense thriller" there are only two things I am looking for in my viewing experience: for the film to be tense and for the film to be a thriller. Good lord this film tried my patience. In the 100 minute running time, we are treated to slowly watching the protagonist (Franck) drive into the lakeside parking area and park his car a dozen different times. Apparently, this is to cue the audience that time has past. Franck makes no decisions that make any sense. His friendship with Henri goes nowhere. His relationship with Michel goes nowhere. There is no story arc (important, to not only good storytelling, but if you want to build tension.) There is no character development. There are no redeeming qualities. At all. (To the film's credit, however, Pierre Deladonchamps (Franck) does his utmost to keep this film afloat.) No time during this chore of a film was I tense, nor was I ever thrilled. What I was, in spades, was bored.Gay cinema needs to start getting better than this.

A dear friend convinced me that my life could simply not be complete until I saw this "masterpiece." What a wrong turn that was.As a person who has participated in the past in the gay beach blanket bingo & bushes scene it never occurred to me that it was worthy of being classified as entertainment and packaged for money. It was mostly a sad scene but it served its purposes. It was liberating back in the day when I was still trying to memorize the various code systems for colored bandannas in your pocket that were supposed to tell you what the other guy was looking for. I know there are people who gladly pay for films like this. They are titillated much like those who tune in those "Flip This House For Big Money" cable shows. I never thought of kitchen demolition as fun but I suppose there's something for everyone.This is basically a gay porno film. Take out the graphic sex and nudity, and you have no film. You certainly wouldn't get invited to Sundance. But give your audience some graphic gay sex and a few moaning orgasms and the wine and cheese crowd will honor you. Don't be fooled.These are actors performing sex acts in close up for money. Is that acting? Or is it simply performing? Who are these actors who are so desperate to be a part of an "art" film that they will submit to being filmed taking another man's penis into their mouth? Or to allowing a close up of another man's fingers entering their anal cavity? Do you really need college level training or a quality workshop to prepare for these roles? No! All you need is the ability to have an erection and then orgasm apparently, on cue.In one scene early on two men are having sex in the bushes. Another man stands a distance away being the voyeur and fondling himself. They turn and ask him to leave citing a need for privacy. Uh...yer in the bushes at a public beach, boys! You want privacy--get a room! One of the main components of dunes sex is being watched for Heaven's sake.Pornography on film has its place. In the hands of actors and directors who know what they are doing it can be quite satisfying in an odd way. But it is at least honest. It comes with no pretense. Actors are hired specifically, for money to perform certain sex acts. (God help the performer who causes the camera person to miss the money shot.) No one thinks it's art and no one thinks their doing a remake of Hamlet. In too much of what we see these days graphic sex (both real and simulated) substitutes for good writing. Game Of Thrones, Masters of Sex, Looking and on and one have just become the "sex and nude scenes of the week" shows. And they are becoming boring in it too.To paraphrase the character Mrs. Baker in Butterflies Are Free, all this sex in the bushes may be realistic but that doesn't make it entertainment. Now in fairness this movie is not as bad as others in this genre. 9 Songs which was dopey and boring and had nothing to do with songs. Or Intimacy which was everything but. Or the totally awful The Lifeguard or Twelve-Thirty. No, it's not that bad. But close.A final note to future directors everywhere. I don't think you really, really need to show me guys sixty-nining in close up for me to grasp what you want me to know in telling your story. No, not really. But if you insist on taking my money for what I can see for--free--at thousands of sites on the internet you owe me this. Give me some buff actors from various ethnic backgrounds with some serious man equipment to perform these scenes will ya? I can see the pasty, white, less than well endowed guys in this film any morning of the week at the gym. And probably better. At least give me that before you take the cash.

This is one of those gay films that has no backbone, the sex scenes are really the only thing worth mentioning. The plot is so thin, I felt NOTHING for the characters, you already know he killed the man, so where's the mystery? I understand it's about passion, but it's completely over the top. Maybe I'm jaded, but the main character falls in love with the person he knows is the killer after one hook up. I don't even feel this is worth writing any more about since I wasted enough time watching it.There are plenty of great gay films, but this is not one of them.

Up until the last 15 minutes or so of the film, I would have scored it about a "7" for decent cinematography, attractive (or at least appropriate-looking) actors, pleasant setting, and even a realistic rendition of what cruising can be like. There was never any suspense about who committed the murder, just the question of how the writers and director would resolve it, like reading a John Grisham novel.Then, what a letdown. Someone could say, well, Henri knew exactly what he was getting into (of course he did), but between that and what I suppose was a similar fate for the inspector, I felt like someone just threw in the towel and gave up on anything sensible. This is enough of a spoiler. Better for you to watch right up to the point where Our Hero goes swimming for the last time, and then switch off. Write your own ending.One small technical thing: I watched this on a DVD with no English soundtrack, just French, but with subtitles. The content of the subtitles was fine, but they were in tiny white letters against a mostly pale background, and therefore impossible to see most of the time.