a film by Webster Forrest 2011 | 74 mins | UK ›› Over the Edge an off-the-wall comical take on life, love and murder. Not to be confused with the earlier Matt Dillon feature of the same name, here we find writer, producer, director, cinematographer et all Webster Forrest going out of his way to try something daringly different in gay cinema. But is it entertaining? What it is, is certainly off-the-wall, that of the story of Jason; a medical school dropout who wakes up one morning to find a dead body lying next to him. And put it this way, we're not talking natural courses. Yet rather than contact the police, instead he enlists the services of object of his adoration Richard to help solve the crime. Only with Jason subject to blackouts, can Richard be sure that the identity of the notorious Camden serial killer is not too close to home? More dark send-up than murder mystery? More gay romance than thriller? What we have here is clearly a mix of styles; an offbeat comedy that delivers direct to camera monologues one moment and homemade autopsies, the next. Yet weaved between its assortment of oddball characters and cue the ever OTT Fenella Fielding as an eccentric neighbour from hell, lies a study of homosexual longing. That of a mutual attraction between two men who yearn for each other, just don't want to make it obvious. At least at first. And that is a bonus in a film that frankly scores one too many own goals, its shoestring of a shoestring budget no excuse for some pretty dire acting, uneven production values and a script that in parts is plainly in need of a re-write. True, the pure absurdity of the situation does raise a laugh from time to time. And yet the whole ludicrous scenario could have been better developed and played, with Forrest repeatedly fading in and out between colour and monochrome, either for art house effect or as cinematic misdirection. Only it doesn’t work. Gay Visibility - overt.  Nudity - strictly from the waist up.  Overall - file under ... 2 stars.    available on DVD as part of the TLA Releasing UK catalogue 08.August.2011 starring: Danny Bedford / Jason, Sean Hart / Richard, Fenella Fielding / Mrs van Eisner, Phillip Davey / PC Best, David Caruana / Van Buren, Graham Dickson / Andy, Kristy Swift / Helen Carr, Jan Taylor / Jane Worthington and Philip St Clair-Burke and Susan Kane as the Forensic Technicians. official website: www.websterforrest.com Copyright 2011 David Hall - www.gaycelluloid.com. archive reference #419 ›› previous page | back to top | print me ‹‹