It's My Party (1996)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Better Late Then Never

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Nick has AIDS and decides to end his life rather than suffer through the indignity of a long and tortured "natural" death.The viewer is then left to suffer through a long and tortured unnatural death of a thousand cuts inflicted by a cast of actors, most of whom play one dimensional characters phoning in their individual Hallmark moments.It's too bad that Hollywood seems to think that the AIDS/HIV epidemic is a money-making gift to them. This comes across more like a Noel Coward drawing room comedy or a really bad soap opera rather than anything to be taken seriously on any level. If anything it could be considered an insulting mockery of those who did face the trauma of finding themselves positive.

Great movie,that shows so much about being human and the trials along with it. Very powerful, I cried when it was over. IT shows that even if we are mad or upset we can overcome and that love is forever. It also shows that we all have a weakness towards something and we have to overcome it or risk losing those closest to us. Going thru this movie and seeing how people are affected by an immanent event and how they come to terms with it, shows that we can be compassionate and move past things, especially with the main couple in the this movie. It has taught me many things and I woke up often the night after I watched it thinking about it and my own relationships. A must see!

I borrowed 'It's My Party' from the library this weekend; a coincidentally timely moment to see this film as this weekend marked milestones in the discovery of AIDs, with MSN's homepage having stories this week on both the 25 years of AIDs in America as well as the struggles in Africa with the disease.This is a particularly sad film (although which one isn't?) about Nick Stark (Eric Roberts), a young West Coast architect who was diagnosed with HIV some time ago and learns from his doctor that he has reached a particularly debilitating stage of the disease known as PML. Not wanting to live life in any sort of semi-conscious state, he decides to commit suicide in a rather dignified way before the stages of disease advance any further. The Party, in the title of this film, refers to the sort of substitution of a funeral for a party, one in which Nick, his friends, and family will gather around to enjoy the last few good times they might have together. He wants no sorrow and no tears and certainly no funeral or wake. This is how he wants to say goodbye.Nick will be among many of his friends to have died from the disease, although this film relegates the disease solely to that of homosexual men, which I would caution in Hollywood because of the misconceptions that is a disease that only affects gay men. But nonetheless, this is the story of a gay man who has seen many of his friends die to the disease. The particularly sad thing is that you share among the assorted celebration (although not all of it is a particularly joyous occasion obviously because people are aware of Nick's plan to end his life) and in the end, the viewer may be fooled by their Hollywood conditioned expectations that somehow Nick will live in the end and everything will be okay.This is one film with a particularly familiar and good cast which join together in sort of an awareness project that reminds me of the Laramie Project made some time later. This, at least according to the trivia, is based on actual events that occurred in the early 90s.

It is pretty obvious this film was completed with a slim budget.....and that works..since the best films are the one's that tell a poignant story that stays with you always. this film does just that!! It came on at 1am last night and I stayed up to finish watching it... Knowing I had to get up very early for work, but I would not nor could not stop watching this movie. Eric Roberts is so incredible in this movie and really I think it is his best performance ever. The only character I didn't like was Pinchot...just too bitchy, but then again I know men just like him and don't like them either ;). I cried so hard during this film. It breaks your heart, especially if you have friends who have aids and one's who have passed from it, like I have. I think What the character Nick does in this film is a hard choice to make..but one he made for himself and those he loved. Harrison's character pisses me off but he is meant to I think and I also think he did a great job as well. It is a great movie and one I will most likely buy for my collection. The story is hard to watch and sad but also funny at times. I can't believe I had never heard of it before. I am so glad I stayed up to watch it though...I highly recommend this film for EVERYONE. It is a story of family and friends and of honesty and of a disease that knows no bounds or orientations. Robert's is amazing in this film and it made me a new fan of his for sure!! It definitely shows the truth about how we as human beings react to the news of impending death and how we all as individuals or family members or friends handle this very hard part of life. By the end of the film I felt I too had lost something......and that is the best part of the movie..it really does make you feel and everyone can relate to at least one of the characters ...this film is for everyone...with the possible exception of young children. The entire cast is awesome and probably the best performance by Olivia Newton John ever as well. Do yourself a favor...see this movie ...you will not regret it....education is the best way to avoid prejudice and hate..this movie does that as well..it educates, even if on a small level what this horrible virus ends up doing to people. This is a true story and the characters were reflecting their real life counter parts, and this film could not show it any better than it did, what it is really like for someone saying farewell...or see you later. I wish I would have known the real person Nick, since it is obvious he was such an influence to everyone around him, in such a positive way. Eric Roberts shows that Nick was such a good and forgiving person...who had laughter in his heart even until the end..who cared so much for his friends and his family that he gave them a party as well as gifts ..the party I don't believe was for him, but he did it for the one's he cared about. What a truly amazing person Nick must have been..to those of you who did know him..you are truly blessed. To the director of this film Randal Kleiser, who I understand made this film as a sort of sound board for the pain he feels...THANK YOU!!!!!