Fixing Frank

“If there were a pill to make you straight, would you..?” Has anyone come across this question? Among us, one may find a person who somehow, at some point of time has had to deal with this doubt, whether it is our introspective self or a third person who perceives homosexuality a choice. image011

So, “Would you?” The movie, Fixing Frank, deals with the same question of identity crisis along with the contemporary hullabaloo on the adequacy (or rather the lack of it) of so-called conversion therapy.

This movie has three characters, Frank, a freelance journalist, his therapist husband Jonathan, and Dr Apsey. Dr Apsey is seemingly the ‘villain’, a psychologist whose notion of homosexuality is that it is a choice. He has a yellow pill that he claims has the power to conform a sad homosexual into a happy satisfied heterosexual.

As movie reels on, audience not only comes across a session of plausible arguments given by Dr Apsey but also the effect building upon Frank’s mind and heart. Though these logics actually do ample harm to the lives of Frank and Jonathan, the main cause of their failing relationship happens to be something else. The story has many twists and turns. All the three characters are strong and have equal exposure throughout the movie; still Jonathan’s character could have been extended. Actors have done great work, especially Dan Butler (Dr. Apsey). Butler, openly gay, has done brilliant work in the role of homophobic psychologist Dr. Apsey. The cinematography is a bit poor in some scenes, one may feel, the movie is absorbing not only because it was an adaptation of a staged play but also the theme and the way the scriptwriter has tackled the issue of conversion therapy.

This is a must watch for our community. Seldom are movies made on such themes and seldom we get to watch a good cinema like this.

(Written for Pink Pages)