Reader comments
Longtime Companion

Hello ... the setting was NYC not SanFrancisco ... scenes
were from Fire Island, Manhattan, GMHC !!!

Hicks' review patronises and is factually inaccurate.

The setting for the film is New York City and Fire Island.

I am specifically annoyed by his reference to
the "homosexual" community. Why not use the label the
community uses -- would that not be more respectful? Are
you still referring to the "negro" community? That's not
being overly PC -- simple courtesy and good manners is
what I call it.

The film concentrates on a narrow scope of the kinds of
people affected, a calculation to elicit maximum sympathy
from the targeted demographic (white, middle-class,
upwardly mobile). Persons of color are in the background,
playing bit roles. It's difficult to connect emotionally
with some of the characters who seem interchangable, mere
window dressing (Howard's lover, for example). Bruce
Davison and Campbell Scott do the best while Mary Louise
Parker smirks in her role-on-the margins.