The film is about two men, one of them, Erik, openly gay, and the other, Paul, in a relationship with a woman. Eventually Paul breaks up with his girlfriend and moves in with Erik.
The film recounts their rocky relationship and Paul's drug addiction. It's very dramatic and it won the prestigious Teddy Award at the International Film Festival in Berlin in 2012, as well as the Outstanding U.S. Dramatic Feature at Outfest 2012. It also made the official selection for the Sundance Film Festival.
Synopsis (skip to avoid spoiler alerts)
The story starts when Erik meets Paul over a phone sex line. Paul is, at this point, in a relationship with his girlfriend and is cheating on her with Erik. Eventually, love grows between them and Paul leaves his girlfriend. It isn't long before they move in together and start a long term relationship. However, it's a relationship in the loosest sense of the term, because it is tortured by Paul's ever-growing addiction to crack cocaine. Sex seems to turn into a way to relieve stress between the two, but eventually Paul's addiction gets so bad he disappears for weeks at a time, only returning intermittently to see Erik. Soon, even those rare visits back home suddenly stop.
Paul moves into a hotel room unbeknownst to Erik. Erik eventually finds Paul, who has been sitting in the hotel, chain-smoking cocaine, and calling guys over on sex lines. He refuses to leave until Paul agrees to come home, but just like every other time Erik suggests they talk about their relationship and coming home, Paul cuts him off with "not now, Erik" or "we'll talk about it tomorrow". As proof as to how broken their relationship is, a man from the sex line turns up during Erik's visit. Erik still refuses to leave and so sits outside the bedroom in the hotel suite while Paul has sex with this stranger, but he hears Paul calling his name, clearly fantasizing about Erik. From this point, it's clear to see they both have feelings for each other, but drugs have got in the way of being able to express their love for one-another.
In the end, they decide (after successful rehab and trying to get back together) that they should break up. This was after nine consecutive years of a relationship tortured by drugs.
The main characters
The acting was very good, in some places a little rough around the edges, but then again it is an independent film and it didn't have a Hollywood budget for major Hollywood stars. However, Lindhardt did have a role in Angels and Demons (2009).
He does a great job at expressing the pain Erik is going through in the film, and how torn he is about what to do. Erik could have easily left Paul after he started disappearing, but his love for his partner is so undying that he tries desperately to get their relationship back on the rails.
This is one of the major points of the film, and it's very much explicitly shown to the spectator. It's to point out that gay men are just as capable as straight couples in having a long-term relationship. I think the aim of this message was to point out that gay men aren't promiscuous, as some bigots such as Bryan Fischer claim. Their relationship is broken by drugs and this is the explanation for Paul calling sex lines.
The drug aspect of the film made it interesting in that it was one of the main topics covered. Unlike other LGBT films where the main topic would be coming out like in Prayers For Bobby or Pariah, or same-sex love and discrimination in Brokeback Mountain, Keep The Lights On could very well have been a film about drugs and not a gay one at all.
This however, is somewhat a little untrue. Drugs do play a big part in the film, but that's because they're the force that's destroying the relationship. The film is therefore, about a relationship. It doesn't cover discrimination, it doesn't cover coming out, it doesn't cover hate or rejection. Instead, Keep The Lights On is about love. I believe that this is the main point of the film: The fact that when confronted with the problematic, regardless of your sexual orientation, it makes you think "would I have left Paul sooner?" In fact, you could even take exactly the same script and replace it with a straight couple and the message would still be the same. It would still be about undying love, because love is universal and homosexual love is no different to heterosexual love. In this sense, it is a true LGBT film that has a strong message to carry, but the audiences aren't that keen on it.
Audience reception
In an IMDB audience review of 416 people, Keep The Lights On got 4.5 out of 10. I think this is because it's not as action-packed as other LGBT films, but that's what, for me at least, makes it even more realistic. It makes me wonder if these people sat and thought about the message for a while afterwards, or whether they gave up halfway through. I know that some people I went to see it with did give up halfway through, and this is unfortunate. The message it carries is such a strong one that it was deserving of the prizes it was awarded.
My verdict
Acting: 8.5/10 - It was good, but some scenes were a little off.
Music: 9/10 - The music was rare, but the viola helped magnify the emotions of relevant scenes.
Script: 8/10 - Some parts left me wondering, a little lost, but overall it was well-written.
Cinematography: 6/10 - It wasn't all that artistic and you can very clearly see the microphone in the bottom right hand corner of one shot.
Editing: 9/10 - The sound was good, the lighting was good, the timing of the shots and speech was also very good and we didn't lose the flow of the film.
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