‘God’s Own Country’ Sundance Review: Period Gay Love Story Falls Apart

Clearly indebted to the memory of “Brokeback Mountain” and its cautious handling of gay male love amidst sheep and lonely landscape, Francis Lee’s debut feature “God’s Own Country” is set on a Yorkshire farm much like the one he himself grew up on, and the camerawork seems in thrall to nature here above all else.

The editing and pacing in this first section of “God’s Own Country” is promisingly fast and intuitive, and the sex scene between Johnny and the blond boy has a very erotic furtive feeling.

There comes a point when Gheorghe takes his pants down to wash himself, and the camera is set back at a distance as Johnny tries not to react to this, but there aren’t enough silent in-between shots of Gheorghe’s face to show us what he is thinking so that the tension between him and Johnny can build and feel real to us.

[...] Johnny and Gheorghe come together and their clothes come mostly off as they roll around in the mud.

When Johnny pulled the blond boy’s pants down in back in the restroom, it was from his point of view so that we could share his excitement.

Instead of making us feel that these boys are meant to be together, “God’s Own Country” unintentionally suggests that Gheorghe should get himself to a city where his silky dark hair, bedroom eyes and developed aesthetic sense might be far better appreciated by others.