Rating: 
Summary: Amazingly powerful and touching!
Review: I first saw this movie at the local Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and I was blown away. The story-telling was captivating and visually amazing. I became so wrapped up in the story that I became oblivious to the real characters and only saw them as who they were pretending to be.
Rating:
Summary: Imaginative, Surprising, and Beautiful
Review: Lilies combines tremendous respect for the power of theater, an excellent script, lush cinematography, and superb casting to create one of the most imaginative, inventive, and beautiful love stories of the decade. It is also a testament to the excellent films coming out of Canada, films that deserve wider currency in the United States and elsewhere. If you've wondered why so many of America's most popular actors are Canadian imports, "Lilies" will help you understand why. Don't miss this film.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking Cinematic Masterpiece
Review: "Lilies" is an absolutely stunning film. The story is utterly original and the cinematography is sheer poetry. This is to say nothing of the incomparable cast, headed by the always fabulous Brent Carver, who turns in a performance that breaks convention in much the same way that it will break your heart. Do not miss this film on any account...
Rating:
Summary: Captivating. Enough Said.
Review: This is one of the most beautiful and stunning films I have ever seen. The acting is amazing and the men in this video should be commended for their efforts. The cross gendered role-play is an excellent twist in this love story and it is essential to the magic of the film. The men and the story are so beautiful, it quickly pulled me in and left me speechless at the end. A definite must-see!
Rating:
Summary: oh wow!
Review: I found this movie to be one of the best love stories that I have seen in a long time. Captivating story line, convincing actors, and stunning cinematography. I think the device of using the male inmates to portray the women is wonderful and essential. This tragic tale has everything; betrayal, love, revenge, loss of innocence, and the difficulties of coming out of the closet. Such a marvelous and provoking movie.
Rating:
Summary: Lilies is a brilliant and visually stunning film!!!!!
Review: Lilies is a brilliant and visually stunning film!!!!! It is the story of a Priest held captive in a prison while the prisoners reinact scenes from his youth. As a tale of two boys in love unfolds, one of the boys, now an elderly convict narrorates and makes the Priest own up to his past and admit to the things he did. The way the film jumps between the flashbacks and reality on the prison stage is fabulous. Because the action really takes place inside the prison, even the flashbacks, all the actors are men, and in the flashbacks they are in drag to portray the women. All the actors give very believable, tasteful, and convincing portrayals. It is a heart-warming and very endearing film, classy yet entertaining, reminiscent of a Merchant-Ivory masterpiece. It will leave your heart aching, your mind racing, and you thorourghly entertained. I cannot wait to own a copy of Lilies, and add it to my collection.
Rating:
Summary: incredibly inventive, beautifully filmed
Review: This is one of those films that you want to discuss with someone the minute it's over. Everything is top-notch--the acting, script, premise, sets, cinematography. You keep thinking you know what's coming next, and you keep getting surprised. Released 3 years ago, and I (an indie film buff) nver heard of it. An absolute must for those into gay-themed films, but don't pigeonhole it--it's also a must for film lovers period. One of those you want to rewind and watch again (which I did). How do films such as this slip through the cracks?
Rating: 
Summary: L'art pour l'art
Review: Some films just can't be grasped on the first go-around. Lillies is one such film. After the first viewing, I was left more confused than moved, but the second time meant a significant improvement. Things came into perspective and I realized what a superb little film this is.The story itself is quite ingenious. Quebec, 1952. A prison. The first scene opens with a priest arriving to hear confession. Nothing out of the ordinary......but as soon the confessional door closes, the mind-boggling roller-coaster begins. The penitent, Simon, has plans other than unburdening his soul. He and his fellow inmates put on a play within a play in order to help the unsuspecting Bishop Bilodeau refresh his clouded memory of events that happened some fifty years ago..... Simon and Bilodeau study together at the local school where a third boy, Vallier, has fallen in love with Simon. Simon and Vallier tryst in the school's attic, while Bilodaeu secretly lusts after Simon himself. Bilodeau attempts to separate the lovers in the guise of 'saving' Simon's sin-tainted soul, when in actuality, he only wants Simon for himself. Simon's father soon learns of his son's secret affair and brutally beats him. In reaction, Simon runs from Vallier and prepares to marry a visiting baroness. The wounded Vallier retreats to his equally-forlorn mother and together they plan to crash the approaching wedding and put Simon's love to the test. Their plan reaps it harvest and Simon soon confesses his love for Vallier. A happy ending is in the works, when Bilodeau blunders back into frame hoping to elope with Simon. Rejected, he reacts rashly and seals Simon's fate for the next fifty years. All the while, the film dances among the colorful past and dreary, incarcerated present as the inmates do their best to make Bishop Bilodeau confront his long-forgotten deed. The long-awaited 'confession' comes and the curtain draws, Simon avenged. No doubt a sumptous feast of colors, striking images, great performances (the baroness steals the show with her smoldering, sexy aura), Lillies is also arch and contrived, in a word, theatrical. The dialogue is so poetic as to seem rhetorical and forced. The characters say everything so touchingly, yet they fail to touch us. Even the final confession falls limp. Everybody tries so hard to say dramatic things that the drama itself suffers. The characters don't make us feel their predicament. This unnaturalness--for lack of a better word--is further compounded by the complete absence of women in the film. Understandable, but the excess of male-ness unnerves and annoys after awhile. Despite its artistic over-kill, Lillies is ultimely redeemed by its creativity and stunning beauty. Every scene is superbly crafted. Kudos to director Greyson, he truly understands his camera. No shot is wasted. Whether it's a close-up or a back-drop, the images in this movie often hit home harder than the dialogue. And the music. Lofty and atmospheric, it alone is worthy of four stars. And true to its theatrical origins, Lillies does deliver the moral goods. We are instructed and edified through the suffering of Simon and Vallier. Bouchard's play starkly outlines the tragic cost of running from ourselves. To quote another 'playwright's' immortal words, 'To thine ownself be true.' For those looking for a luscious piece of tasty and filling eye candy, then look no further!
Rating:
Summary: Superb!!!!!!
Review: After 50 or so reviews there's not much left to say. Nevertheless, after watching this film for the second time (as many of others have pointed out)I came to realize the real value of this amazing movie and felt the absolute urgency to express my feelings about it. For me it is not one of the best "gay movies" I have ever seen. It is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Period.
The plot and dialog are almost Shakespearean. The incorporation a St. Sebastian last minutes of life (as a play) into the plot of the film gives the movie the perfect strength and passion necessary to understand the feelings of the two main characters. All three main roles played by the young actors are of Oscar caliber. The music is only perfectly represented in each scene and if these were not enough, the dramatic supporting roles of the mother and the Countess are magnificently acted and, at the same time, bring enough "camp" to the movie to make its dark plot histerically funny. Not enough? The art direction and photography are so beautiful that I wish I could get a chance to see this movie in a big screen. I wonder if the makers of "American Beauty" got the idea for the rose petal scenes from the love scene in the bathtub in this movie. Bravo Greyson!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Timeless in its beauty; a classic
Review: Based upon the play Michel-Marc Bouchard; LILLIES, is a haunting, yet beautiful poignant love story between two young men (both a couple of adonis'es)in Quebec Canada during the early part of the 20th century. The cast including a Bishop, and man serving a life sentense (in 1952) and his fellow inmates who, act out a play in the prison chapel while holding the bishop captive about an incident which happened 40 years earlier envolving the death of one of the major players. Its a story about forbidden love, death and finally, redemption
The acting was supurb, and the scences flowing from the past to the present was seamless. To tell you more would spoil this beautiful film. It is somewhat difficult to follow in the beginning, during the earlier time period such as which characther is the man in prison and which is the bishop and so forth during the play acting; but just go with the flow of this fine film and all the pieces come together in the end.
Watch this with a loved one; I really loved this film; for this is bound to be a classic in the gay genre; but above all, purchase a copy for your personal collection.
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