It took me two tries to get through THE MAN I LOVE and it taught me two things.
First, I don't like Ira Sach's films. Say what you will about his stories, how he presents them does not work for me.
The other thing is that Rami Malek is a good but very limited actor. Every gesture and turn has been used before. There was nothing he did here that wasn't something that he did in pretty much every other performance. I thought he was coasting after his Oscar win but too many movies on I'm now certain he's a one trick pony and it's a kind of boring trick at this point.
The other problem with Malek in this film is he is much too strong a personality for it. Everyone else in the film is acting real and close to the vest and Malek is devouring the spotlight. He couldn't have warn a neon suit and been more noticable. It throws the whole film off.
Not that it really mattered because Sach's construction of the film never really worked. We have a series of random scenes about an actor getting back on his feet, his dealing with AIDS (in the 1980's) and the people who love him, but not a lot of details. correction there are details but only in a random line or look. The interesting tidbit is in each scene like a toy in a cereal box where you have to eat a whole box to get it- only it's just a piece of a toy and you have to eat another box of cereal to get the next line that means something. Things didn't feel like they flowed together. The result is that by the time the ending comes I felt nothing. I could have jumped from start to finish and gotten the same thing out of it. (Sachs arc isn't anything we haven't seen before).
I thought my negative reaction was from a blood sugar crash, a second viewing revealed it just isn't a good movie.
A major miss
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