What We Have (2014) User Reviews

Destined for Lonliness

[christopherjetset · 5/10 · 19 November 2021]

I initially believed this would be a story where a gay man is wrongfully accused of inappropriate behavior with a minor. As the story unfolded, I still believed that would be the end, even with the boy's grandmother serving as an omniscient homophobic chorus. My surprise was actually Allen's seemingly oblivious behavior of purposely interjecting himself into the life and activities of the boy. He seemed to be totally unaware of the implications or actually did think it not bizarre for a grown man to show up among teen swimmers, to have cafe outings with his student, or to even attend a teen dance and trip the light fantastic with the boy. He even tries to avoid or at times sabotage what might have been a good and appropriate relationship with an adult in order to pursue a relationship with the boy that would never be.

What We Have

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 13 April 2023]

Frenchman Maxime Desmons ("Maurice") relocates to a remote Canadian community where he picks up his acting career. The wages are poor, so he tries to supplement them by teaching folks French. That's where he alights on keen, but shy, swimmer "Allan" (Alex Ozerov). Try as they both might, they struggle to fit in with their respective peers, but they do gradually begin to bond together. The former an outwardly gay man, the latter still preparing for his own journey into manhood. When "Maurice" intervenes during an incident with a bully, the younger man starts to believe that the two could have a future. This is when, using flashbacks and good old community gossip, that we discover just why the actor is now all but hiding in this provincial backwater. Desmons is pretty convincing here, as is Ozerov, but I found the writing a bit pedestrian and there is something distinctly unsatisfactory about the conclusion. The production is good though, the story evolves at a reasonable pace and it does present us with an interesting observation of behaviour that when looked on retrospectively, makes you wonder why people make some of the most basic of human errors when the heart and hormones take over.

A French Canadian Story of lust, loss and acting

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 8/10 · 9 May 2016]

Maurice (Maxime Desmons) has relocated from Paris to a small North Canadian town. He is running away from a past that he can not face and decides to get a job acting as that is his profession. The pay though is basic so he advertises to tutor in French. His advert is answered by the mother of Alan – a withdrawn but talented teenager.

Maurice seems to alienate all around him despite his abilities but Alan finds him to be inspirational. Meanwhile Maurice is trying to fit in at the theatre but even as his acting is excellent the disaffected youth whom he is tutoring starts to get to him through the boy's overt needs.

Now this is a really well made and intentioned film. Alex Ozerov as Alan is superb (actually from Russia originally) and the story line is original and engaging, some of the back story is told in flashback and that is done with real style too. This is a film that is gay themed but would be easily for a wider audience as the themes are universal and I have to see I appreciated this very much indeed.

The Homoerotic Version of Lolita

[MrJustRight · 10/10 · 27 April 2022]

Many parallels can be drawn between this film and Nabokov's work, the most obvious connection being the age difference, but a plethora of others can be drawn as well: while at first the older gentleman is the pursuer, the younger paramour of interest ends up pursuing the pursuer by regurgitating the romantic and sexual interest emanated by the older gentleman. Not to mention the professions of the older gentleman revolve around teaching, and prominent scenes feature stage performances, though Nabokov sees Lolita performing on stage whilst this film sees Maurice as the performer yet Alan takes an interest in Maurice's stage performing. Perhaps most prominently, however, both stories end rather tragically. Lolita gets married and bears a child with another man, whilst Maurice leaves Alan -- they both end in separation.

In both stories we see an effervescent mother who is hellbent on keeping the male encroacher, though reasons vary ; Nabokov's Charlotte is smitten with Humbert Humbert whilst this film has Alan's mother seemingly only interested in hiring the best tutor for her son (but perhaps there is more than meets the eye to this line of story).

We also see flashbacks to Maurice's childhood in a similar fashion that Adrian Lyne opens his 1997 remake of Lolita, showing a fourteen-year-old Humbert Humbert and what drove him to be the man he is today. It is revealed in both stories that the men's childhoods are responsible for their tragic attractions to minors: Humbert Humbert lost his childhood sweetheart to illness, whilst Maurice was sexualized by his stepfather.

In my opinion this film is a true masterpiece. It rings pangs of truth which strum at one's heartstrings. Whilst it is a homoerotic film, it goes far deeper than that. Notably both Lolita and Alan are missing fathers, and Maurice himself had a stepfather. It speaks to the pains of fatherlessness, and the consequences of it. While these consequences may seem painful, they can also be beautiful, as evident in both "Lolita" and "What We Have." Beautiful, even if in a tragic way.

To paraphrase the character Lana Lang from Smallville, "Change can be painful, but it can also be beautiful. Many times it is both."

That is what this film is: Beautiful pain, painful beauty. Life.

We see a defiance of societal norms in both stories, both men turning down women their age; H. H. turns down Lolita's mother Charlotte whilst Maurice turns down his female costar on stage. These men reject what perhaps most men would readily grab should they have the chance (well, perhaps not Charlotte).