The Sum of Us (1994)

The Sum of Us is a sweet Australian gay romantic comedy that was obviously based on a play (by David Stevens, who also wrote the screenplay). The two main characters, a dad and his son, speak directly to the camera and tell us about their feelings and their lives. This is cute, though, and it was sort of a 1990s romantic comedy thing. It feels like a product of its period.

I don't understand the title The Sum of Us, and the film doesn't really explain it despite the constant direct address employed throughout; perhaps it's clear in the original play. 

I watched this movie because I fell in love with Jack Thompson in the Australian New Wave film Sunday Too Far Away, and I thought what else has this man been in, and then I came across a gay romantic comedy with Russell Crowe starring him and wondered what on earth I had been missing all this time.

Russell Crowe is dreamy obviously, and he is so sad and sweet for the whole film that you can't help but be in love with him. But The Sum of Us just isn't that great.The acting frequently feels a bit stilted, and the direction is off most of the time, not really understanding how to set the right mood between sad scenes, jokes, and romance. It's almost as if the directors (Geoff Burton and Kevin Dowling) are just trying to tell the story or something silly like that without thinking about what the beats are and how we're supposed to be responding to the story. As such, the movie never hits its stride and when The Sum of Us ended I thought, oh wait, really? That was the final beat? Shrug.

I think you can stream The Sum of Us, but I got Netflix to send me the DVD. This was another one in the very long wait section.