A middle aged married man from Dublin struggles to stay afloat as his life and relationships with others deteriorates, his knowledge of who and what he is becomes increasingly acute and the structures he's built his life around begin to cascade and tumble. The far from uncommon drink, depression and betrayal invariably plays out, albeit with a not so common betrayal perspective, which is the only piece of the story that really differentiates it from many things you've seen before. Fine performances compensate for the dot to dot editing, with the conclusion that what you have just seen is generally played out with a myriad of variations on the theme the world over - every day, every week, every year. You may well be playing it out now within your own variation.
16 Reviews
Interesting
BandSAboutMovies24 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Colm is in his mid-40's, married, has two teenagers and has never gotten over the death of his father. He doesn't get along with his own son and his job is falling apart while his wife has no real interest in him. You can see why he'd drift into another world and find comfort in the hidden sex he has with a prostitute named Jay. This is his story.
Between drinking and risky sex, Colm (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Thanos' henchman Ebony Maw in the last two Avengers movies) finds something in Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney, Dunkirk) that he can't find anywhere else. Whether or not his life emerges in one piece doesn't matter any longer.
Based on the play Trade, a play written by Irish playwright and screenwriter Mark O'Halloran (Garage, Adam & Paul), this is another very human movie from Peter Mackie Burns, whose Daphne was another tale of a life in crisis that needs a major change. The sex between the men isn't even about sex or money or power by the end, but the shared need of a moment that allows them escape the pressures of being men, of being fathers, of expectations and worries and disappointments.
Between drinking and risky sex, Colm (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Thanos' henchman Ebony Maw in the last two Avengers movies) finds something in Jay (Tom Glynn-Carney, Dunkirk) that he can't find anywhere else. Whether or not his life emerges in one piece doesn't matter any longer.
Based on the play Trade, a play written by Irish playwright and screenwriter Mark O'Halloran (Garage, Adam & Paul), this is another very human movie from Peter Mackie Burns, whose Daphne was another tale of a life in crisis that needs a major change. The sex between the men isn't even about sex or money or power by the end, but the shared need of a moment that allows them escape the pressures of being men, of being fathers, of expectations and worries and disappointments.
An engaging, hard drama
lareval14 September 2021
Good performances and solid drama makes this movie an interesting and sometimes hard to watch movie. It makes you feel for its characters, their poor situations and its conclusion makes you wonder what would happen next. A good watch.
Good plot but..
danielw-4988430 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The movie have a great plot but not develop to the max.
There no conclusion in the movie or we need to wait for part 2.
1 - Female characters: The daughter and sister were just a fill up of time. They can easy cut of the movie.
2 - He got fired of the job and that it. No communication with wife.
3 - He met the young guy in the bathroom, and no expiation of how he make arrangements to meet him.
4 - The relationship with the family no well develop
5 - At the end what happend the leave people in the air. The wife kick him out of the house but he still there. and who's the one enter the house at end. Nobody knows, Reason for part 2.
No closure.
adamjohns-425758 June 2022
Rialto (2019) -
I'm glad that I could use the subtitles for this one. There's a lot of quiet whispered talk in a very strong accent.
It's not a cheerful film at all with Colm dealing with the death of an abusive father and Jay still dealing with his own Dad and being a parent himself.
I didn't realise that so many people had Daddy Issues like mine actually.
There's also a lot of aggression between everyone in general.
Although it's got a quite dull, grimey and sordid element to it, there is also something very sweet, but also erotic about the connection between the leads. It's not just the sexual scenes, which aren't actually that explicit, but also the timid and saddening relationship between Colm and Jay, as they open up to each other. It's that moment of intimacy as your getting to know someone while the urges continue to build.
It's filmed in a similar way to 'Vera' (2011-), so alike that I kept expecting her to turn up and accuse Colm of murdering someone. I think that would have just made his day. It would have improved the film too as the story doesn't really go anywhere and there's not enough of anything else to make it worthwhile really. As such there's not really a lot of point to it for me.
The acting is all very fine and all that, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in particular, but it could have been used for something a lot more worthwhile and to tell an LGBTQ+ story that doesn't seem so seedy and wrong.
I'm probably a bit too sentimental, but I would have liked the two leads to have found a kindred spirit in each other and run off together. What actually happens is incredibly boring and the build up that actually had some potential comes to a crashing halt and before you know it the film is over.
309.88/1000.
I'm glad that I could use the subtitles for this one. There's a lot of quiet whispered talk in a very strong accent.
It's not a cheerful film at all with Colm dealing with the death of an abusive father and Jay still dealing with his own Dad and being a parent himself.
I didn't realise that so many people had Daddy Issues like mine actually.
There's also a lot of aggression between everyone in general.
Although it's got a quite dull, grimey and sordid element to it, there is also something very sweet, but also erotic about the connection between the leads. It's not just the sexual scenes, which aren't actually that explicit, but also the timid and saddening relationship between Colm and Jay, as they open up to each other. It's that moment of intimacy as your getting to know someone while the urges continue to build.
It's filmed in a similar way to 'Vera' (2011-), so alike that I kept expecting her to turn up and accuse Colm of murdering someone. I think that would have just made his day. It would have improved the film too as the story doesn't really go anywhere and there's not enough of anything else to make it worthwhile really. As such there's not really a lot of point to it for me.
The acting is all very fine and all that, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor in particular, but it could have been used for something a lot more worthwhile and to tell an LGBTQ+ story that doesn't seem so seedy and wrong.
I'm probably a bit too sentimental, but I would have liked the two leads to have found a kindred spirit in each other and run off together. What actually happens is incredibly boring and the build up that actually had some potential comes to a crashing halt and before you know it the film is over.
309.88/1000.
Who likes boring, sad films? Then this one's for you...
cjgmusic30 November 2020
I thought this would be an interesting look at how 2 worlds collide and would have something fun to take away. WRONG. It was extremely slow and boring. I get what the other reviewers said about each man escaping from the pressures of being a man, but seriously? There are no happy moments at all in this film and an ending that leaves you wondering why on earth you just wasted the time to watch this. I was really wanting .... something out of this, but ... you just leave with nothing. Sadly, this was a waste of time, imo.
Exquisitely Crafted
miguelmigs_2 February 2021
Relatable Chaacters
leejnelson-683-10319519 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Has the story and the characters to be a great film, and whilst it's good and draws you in quickly, time flies and before you know it, it's finished... However, it doesn't finish. It has no conclusion, it's literally just left hanging...
UNWATCHABLE WITHOUT SUBTITLES!
wayne-8833818 March 2022
Between the horrible low sound on the DVD (brand new from TLA Video), cast members mumbling or speaking fast, thick, thick Irish/Scottish accents, and no options for English subtitles, this movie was unwatchable and unintelligible to me! And, just an observation, for a gay-themed movie, there was not one male actor (old or young) who was even the tiniest, least bit attractive. So, if you're American, Canadian, or hearing-imparied, subtitles are not available to help understand this movie!
Fascinating
avenuesf21 September 2020
I enjoyed this film very much. "Rialto" is a powerful, impeccably directed drama about a middle-aged married man who becomes infatuated with a street hustler and continues to pursue him while his life falls apart. He's also grieving the recent loss of his father and lives with a family he's become increasingly estranged from. The performances in the film are all excellent, notably Tom Vaughan-Lawlor who is in almost every scene of the film.
"Rialto" reminded me a lot of the "angry young man" dramas the UK produced so well in the 60's. There's a slow, almost melancholy mood to the film, but it's never boring. The ending took me by surprise, but at the same time it felt strangely liberating.
This is another example of how the European film industry remains light years ahead of the U.S. Hollywood just isn't bold or brave enough to produce works like this. The film is bleak, but it never stops being intriguing.
"Rialto" reminded me a lot of the "angry young man" dramas the UK produced so well in the 60's. There's a slow, almost melancholy mood to the film, but it's never boring. The ending took me by surprise, but at the same time it felt strangely liberating.
This is another example of how the European film industry remains light years ahead of the U.S. Hollywood just isn't bold or brave enough to produce works like this. The film is bleak, but it never stops being intriguing.
A Very fine film
jromanbaker13 July 2020
This is a modern tragedy that reminded me of Buchner's ' Wozzeck ' and Thomas Mann's ' Death in Venice '. A 46 year old man is at the end of his tether, and all around him are strangers in his family who do not know him, and strangers outside of him who deprive him of the only job he has ever had. He loves only an inaccessible youth and like Aschenbach in ' Death in Venice ' he sees him as the embodiment of beauty, when the youth is all too pathetically human. The film is anything but rough in its direction, and the acting is superb. It is not an easy film to watch, but then the finest works of art are ( and should be ) challenging and difficult. The music underlines this and rarely has music been so well used. There is a scene in mud fields that moved me a lot and the music in that scene was excellent and added to the ' Wozzeck ' feel I had throughout the film. It had echoes of Alban Berg who put the Buchner play to music and made it one of the greatest and hardest Opera's to watch and bear. But like all works that work at the highest level ' Rialto ' left me with a gift, and that is the gift of further understanding mankind, and the complexities of being human, plus the extremities of abuse that are inflicted constantly on us as human beings. Rialto was that part of Venice where Aschenbach stayed in ' Death in Venice '. A painful but necessary gem that validates the art of film supremely.
Tom Vaughn-Lawlor should get an Oscar for this performance.
timotteart4 March 2021
Totally gripping from start to finish. Vaughn-Lawlor is nothing short of stunning in complete immersion in this role. There is not a second in which I did not believe I was watching a real person with many layers of suffering and confusion about many different issues.
His character does some despicable things but I completely understood where those actions came from, and that he had done all he could do over many years to avoid their manifestation. His humanity and good heart and desire to do the right thing was never in question, even as he staggers through scene after scene showing a man falling apart yet not yet willing to end it all.
Loved this film. Love Vaughn-Lawlor in it. Hollywood would never even get close to making a film like this, which is why I've almost completely given up on watching them. Thank god for Asian, British, European, Scandinavian and Australian films. So much richer, deeper, human and willing to tackle earthier subject matter than milquetoast Hollywood.
His character does some despicable things but I completely understood where those actions came from, and that he had done all he could do over many years to avoid their manifestation. His humanity and good heart and desire to do the right thing was never in question, even as he staggers through scene after scene showing a man falling apart yet not yet willing to end it all.
Loved this film. Love Vaughn-Lawlor in it. Hollywood would never even get close to making a film like this, which is why I've almost completely given up on watching them. Thank god for Asian, British, European, Scandinavian and Australian films. So much richer, deeper, human and willing to tackle earthier subject matter than milquetoast Hollywood.
A man in search of an honest life
justahunch-7054921 September 2023
Many on here have stated how depressing this film is and I suppose they have a point, but I saw it differently despite its sadness. I saw this as the story of a man wanting himself and others around him to live lives without deceit and with honesty. He is coming to this point in his middle aged life after his father has just died, his lifetime job is ending and he finds himself slowly pursuing a young male prostitute. The film never gets into details about the past regarding his sexuality, but he is clearly new to this facet in his life and one has to suspect that he's been secretly dealing and not acting upon these desires. The lead performance is wonderful. Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is an actor I am completely unfamiliar with and he is just simply perfection in this role. Ultimately, it's a fairly simple story about a man wanting to live honestly despite what may be. The ending was a bit of a surprise, but it's an interesting way to leave us.
Extras
benkierans24 February 2020
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