Rating: 
Summary: Big Eden
Review: This movie was sure delight. One of the best I have seen in years.
The music was great, the characters worked well with each other.
Just a fun, truthful show.
Watch! You will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Gay Northern Exposure
Review: This is one of the best gay themed movies I have ever seen. One of the few times I have teared up while watching a movie because of joy. No one dies or is killed, but instead a warm and loving affirmation of being gay.Highly recommend this film and thanks to all the previous reviewers that steered me to this film.
Rating:
Summary: great movie
Review: I can't say enough about this movie. The story is so romantic and enchanting. I saw this in the theater last year and was so moved by the idyllic setting, the characters, the acting, music soundtrack, etc... that I had to own it for my DVD collection. The DVD is filled with extras that enhance the whole Big Eden experience including deleted scenes that are actually worth seeing and a wonderful "making of" segment that let's the players discuss their experiences/feelings during the making of this movie. It's nice to see a gay themed movie with actors in their 30's with average body size (not the gym body esthetic so often shown in gay movies) and ethnicity. This film will have you smiling, crying, and rooting for the characters throughout; and wishing that Big Eden really existed. Who knows, maybe it does.
Rating: 
Summary: Great sound track, boring movie
Review: I really really wanted to like this movie. Great location, interesting plot...but the story line just didnt work. I felt like everyone was just reading their lines, anxious to get it over with..
OK for a rental, but definetely not worth buying.
Rating: 
Summary: A rare gem of a film....
Review: Big Eden is a rare gem in the field of gay cinema - it puts a smile on your face. Whilst a little slow to begin with, and some scenes could have easily been edited to shorten the movie, slowly you are drawn into the characters and the world they inhabit. Beautifully shot with great landscape photography, it's a rare find for a 'gay themed' movie to have no gratuitous sex scenes - simple, tender affection is shown to enhance the story. Also the use of late 30's early 40's actors in the principle roles is novel - ordinary 'folk' falling in love. There are no young, hip 'fashionable' gay men to be found here and that is a big plus. A special mention should be made of the DVD - a 2 disc set packed with extra features like audio commentary, deleted scenes, interviews, behind the scenes footage and even recipes from the film. Whilst the presentation of the extra features doesn't compare to the big studio releases, kudos to Wolfe Video for including them. Overall, a beautiful film that is sure to please....
Rating:
Summary: A Dream, A Fantasy, A Great Movie
Review: I honestly didn't know what I was letting myself in for when I sat down the other night to watch this film on DVD. But -- wow! Since seeing it, I can't get it out of my mind. It isn't just that its well acted and wonderfully made. The story is a winner. And yes, it isn't entirely realistic. But why would anyone want to watch a movie (other than a documentary) and see nothing but a perfect mirror of everyday life? This film is about possibility. And it is about being open and ready to let your life find you. Such a beautiful, beautiful movie. It should be watched by everyone. Don't classify it as just a movie for gay people! This is film-making beyond categorization. Watch it. Let yourself be taken in by the magic. If there is anywhere on earth like Big Eden, it is in your heart!
Rating:
Summary: Best gay movie I have seen so far
Review: I saw this movie @ the world famous CASTRO Theatre in San Francisco during the 2000 SF Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. When the movie ended, it received at least a 15 minutes standing ovation from the crowd. If you ever need a movie to cheer you up, that leaves you feeling happy and full of hope, this is the movie. The movie is about a man who lived in the big city, having to go back to his hometown in Big Eden, Montana to take care of his grandfather... and then coming to terms with his comfort level about his own sexuality... all the time not understanding and knowing that the town folks have no problems with it.
Rating:
Summary: Leave Your Cynicism Behind on Your Trip to Big Eden
Review: I first saw Big Eden at the Cleveland International Film Festival in March of 2001, where it won the Best Film award. The screening was attended by director Thomas Bezucha, who fielded questions from the enthusiastic audience afterward. I saw it again during its general release and for over a year I have eagerly anticipated the DVD. Big Eden grows better with repeat viewing, a sign of rare quality. There is a trick to enjoying this film: abandon your cynicism. There are no political statements here (except the general one that we CAN get along); there are no histrionics; the film is gratefully free of controversy and artsy pretension; and the characters are allowed to be (and look) imperfect. This is a simple story about the many ways love expresses itself, from Henry taking care of his grandfather, to Pike falling in love with Henry, and the entire town caring for one another. This film is suffused with the many kinds of human love which make life worth living. As such, this film is a welcome change from some of the depressing, lurid fare independent film fans are used to having forced upon us. Bezucha directs this film, his first, with calm professionalism and sensitive simplicity. The quality of the production values belies the fact that this film was shot on a shoestring budget. Is this a realistic value of acceptance in small town America? Not entirely. However, this film was shot in a rural setting not unlike the fictional one of Big Eden--and the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens supported the production augers well for the real-life Big Edens of the future.
Wolfe Video has provided a strong DVD presentation, with plenty of extras, from the usual director's commentary, to a selection of recipes from the film. The picture quality is excellent, well defined with deep color saturation. The sound is clear and dimensional, although Bezucha's insightful commentary is not always clear over the dialogue. One minor complaint, Wolfe Video has not provided subtitles of closed-captioning. Considering the large number of hearing-impaired gay people, this should be standard. For those who wish to be shocked, angered or titillated, there are already a plethora gay themed films that accomplish that. Big Eden offers gay film's first old-fashioned, heart warming love story. If you're looking to be uplifted, Big Eden is the film for you.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: It's pretty easy to figure out the ending right from the start, and it has all those familiar, predictable elements of romantic comedies, and you could almost say it was a touch cliched, or even a little corny. But so what. In this case, all of those qualities are definitely positive. This was one of the most wonderful, uplifting, romantic films I've ever seen. Sweet and simple. Makes nice use of food imagery. Tugs at the same group of emotions as Beautiful Thing or Moonstruck or Billy Elliot or any of those movies that make you smile. And how nice to see the characters be actual adults. Gay cinema would have us think that romance doesn't happen after 27. See this film, and enjoy it. We all need this kind of movie in our lives.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful fairy tale - no pun intended.
Review: Big Eden arises from a startling concept by its creator: a universe in which there are no homophobes, in which the straights are not even slightly antagonistic to the gays in their midst. In this movie, every single pea-pickin' one of the heteros are encouragers and enablers to their gay neighbors. The only homophobia in Big Eden is that internalized by the town's two gay men (and one bi) and even that is partly just commitment phobia. The result is an hilarious send-up of small town America, a paradise in which the good old boys who loiter at the general store all day squabble over whose turn it is to make the cappuchino and their different readings of the moves the gays are putting on each other. Every time you think the homophobic sh-t is going to hit the fan, it doesn't. If you're like me, this topsy-turvy state of affairs will have you rolling on the floor laughing your head off at times and bawling your eyes out at others. If the real world were like this, I'd go thru my days giggling non-stop. The supporting cast is excellent, particularly George Coe as Sam, the dying grandfather, Louise Fletcher as Grace, an aptly named character, and O'Neal Compton as Jim Soams, the solicitous if not too perceptive leader of the bucolic gang down to the general store, perfectly cast against type (you'd expect to see him as a bigoted Southern sheriff). The scene in which Soams tries to find a way to ask Pike if he is 'one of them' is hilarious. The principals are unfortunately somewhat less interesting than the supporting cast. Arye Gross as Henry Hart is such a distant character throughout most of the film, it's difficult to care much whether he finds love. Eric Schweig as Pike Dexter is also cast against type, though less successfully than Compton; he has an imposing physical presence and is good at glowering, staring at the floor and running from the room, but the character is too much of a caricature; we get to know him more from what others say of him than what he shares of himself. Tim DeKay as Dean is perhaps the least likeable character in a film in which it's hard to find someone not to like. Henry's high school crush, Dean has held on to his school-boy good looks and is newly divorced. Throughout the film he waffles over whether to get a new set of his-n-hers towels, or his-n-his. He provides a little tension in a love story which nevertheless remains not very interesting. Henry is clearly too hurt by what happened in the past to renew the love. But the real core of the film is not the love story, which is not only not very captivating but also wrapped up a bit to easily at the end, but the themes of 'coming home to who you are' and 'being known.' Just days before he dies, Sam calls Henry to sit beside him on the sofa and complains 'you won't tell me who you are,' and 'I can't help thinking your grandma and I didn't do right by you some how' because of Henry's resistance to being known and accepting the love of the townsfolk. Henry doesn't get it, though, until it's too late. These are the real discoveries Henry makes by returning home to Big Eden. The soundtrack is excellent: simple, classic country songs, only a couple of which I could identify without watching the credits closely, which perfectly speak to the complexities which bedevil most lives. The setting of the film is, of course, magnificent. I give Big Eden 5 Stars in the ratings system, though I would prefer to give it 4.5, downgrading it only for the lack of a more interesting, better told love story. Still, it is an excellent and very entertaining film and I highly recommend it.
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