The Way Community Should Be
Movie Review: Big Eden (2000) on Amazon Prime and the Roku Channel
Big Eden is what we wish could be.
The film represents community at its finest, and an ideal small town where same sex orientation is casually affirmed.
I could nit-pick about some little details in Big Eden, but that wouldn’t make this gay romance any less touching. I cried just as much watching it this time as I have every time since it was released a quarter of a century ago.
Big Eden is romantic, sentimental, idealistic, Idyllic, sad, and joyful. With its Rocky Mountain backdrop and small town neighborliness, Big Eden is the kind of place where we wish we could go home.
Big Eden is not a typical gay genre movie. There is very little nudity and no sex. It doesn’t revolve around some terrible tragedy, as with so many LGBTQ movies. There is no snappy gay banter nor a stereotypical flaming queen inserted for comic relief.
Big Eden is about regular people in a small mountain town.
The story centers on Henry (Arye Gross), a successful New York City artist who returns home to Big Eden, Montana to care for his ailing grandfather (George Coe).
It’s easy to assume that homophobia will dominate Henry’s return to his hometown and we brace for the worst. After all, we’re conditioned by decades of tragic LGBTQ movies to expect that scenario.
Instead, old friends and neighbors welcome Henry with open arms and helpful concern about his grandfather’s condition.
As he settles back into hometown life, Henry’s reentry is clouded by insecurities about who he is and where he should be.
For starters, Henry is afraid to come out to his grandfather, recovering from a stroke and grouchy about accepting help. In addition, Grace (Louise Fletcher), who seems to run the whole town, can’t understand why Henry doesn’t just stay in Big Eden and settle down.
But the most difficult reunion is with recently divorced Dean (Tim DeKay), who stirs up Henry’s unresolved longing and resentment about what passed between them decades before.
One of the more interesting characters, Pike (Eric Schweig), suffers from acute social anxiety. He moves almost invisibly through town, unable to hold a conversation or look most people in the eye. When Grace arranges for him to bring nightly dinners to Henry (who can’t cook) and his convalescent grandfather, Pike’s anxiety kicks into overdrive. Much to Henry’s bewilderment, Pike is especially shy around him and cannot accept unceasing invitations to stay for dinner.
Pike’s pain is increasingly visible as he watches Henry and Dean wrestle with their troubled history.
My favorite character is The Widow Thayer, marvelously played by Nan Martin. At first, Mrs. Thayer presents a possible obstacle to Henry’s homecoming, oblivious to his protestations while she unceasingly attempts to set him up with local women. Once made aware of Henry’s actual proclivities, however, the town matriarch easily shifts her matchmaking fervor towards fixing him up with other local gay bachelors.
I love that Henry is welcomed home without extra drama or undue gossip. People in Big Eden are little concerned with Henry’s sexual orientation. Their preoccupation, in fact, centers more around relieving Pike’s unrequited longing for Henry.
In 2000, this film represented a hopeful vision, a community to aspire to, and perhaps a change we could expect within our lifetimes. It’s distressing to think that in the toxic divisiveness of 2023, Big Eden’s idealism seems further away than ever.
Where Big Eden once brought optimistic tears of hope, it now brings wistful tears of disappointment. Once visionary and hopeful, Big Eden has become what we wish could have been.
This review also appears in Movie Buff, a column for Circling, the Jonathan’s Circle newsletter (subscription only, no link).
