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Keep the Lights On Movie Review

Keep the Lights On is a 2012 drama film directed by Ira Sachs and starring Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth. It’s a solid, but perhaps overly intimate movie.

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“Would you turn that light on, above the bed?

I don’t want to be in the dark with you“

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Substance abuse and emotional and physical distance threaten the relationship between a gay filmmaker and his longtime lover. This was an indie film that Ira Sachs made before his breakout movie ‘Love Is Strange’ and it’s inferior to that tender, memorable romance. This one is nowhere near as romantic and it felt muted in its emotions and tone.

My biggest issue with this picture is its technical aspects. While I do respect indies as a whole, I found this movie cheap-looking even for a small-budgeted feature. The cinematography is so poor and the colors so quaint that the film genuinely felt like it came out back in the early 2000s when the action is set. Maybe this was intentional, but I hardly doubt it given that the editing and the score are also uninspired.

Erik and Paul are interesting characters and Lindhardt and Booth both played them confidently. Lindhardt is particularly memorable and effective in the best-written role of the protagonist whose partner is a total mess and he has to deal with that. While drug addiction is not relatable to me as I have never touched one in my life, it was dealt with very well here and some of the scenes were definitely moving.

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Keep the Lights On is at its best when focusing on these two men speaking and quarreling with each other. The movie was apparently autobiographical, which I certainly respect, but maybe it was too personal as it negatively impacted the structure of the film. Going back and forth between arguing and living peacefully, breaking up and getting along, the film felt repetitious in that monotonous structure and ultimately I did not feel anything as the protagonist’s obsession with this problematic man felt both odd and underdeveloped.