Beautiful Thing tells the story of Jaime, a smart yet introverted teenager who hates school. His single-parent mom works constant shifts at the local bar, his neighbor Leah has been kicked out of school and spends most of her time listening to the music of her idol Mama Cass, and his other neighbor, Ste, stays at Jaime's house whenever his father beats him. Most of the action takes place in one of London's low-income housing projects, where everyone knows everyone else's business and privacy is a precious commodity.

A pretty dreary first half sets up the action for the second, in which Jaime and Ste begin to fall in love. Jonathan Harvey wrote the original play Beautiful Thing and also adapted it for the screen. The film's theatrical origins are obvious: Meaty dialogue drives the movie forward, and the cast works together as an ensemble. Glen Berry and Scott Neal are particularly good as the two young lovers. Harvey says in the press kit: "I had to explain to the actors that certainly with me and my friends there wasn't much of a crisis about being gay. It was just natural to us. It's a happy love story; you can be gay and happy, you can be working class and accept homosexuality."

Perhaps this is why Beautiful Thing remains a pleasant but forgettable slice-of-life film. Coming out is an important experience, but in the 1990s, and especially for young people, it seems to be losing its traumatic qualities and becoming more of a normal rite of passage, like getting your first period or your driver's license. This is good for real live teenagers who have to worry less about getting kicked out of their own homes but bad for movie makers who continue to dwell on a topic that has lost its sense of drama. Jaime's coming out to his mom merits one fight, a few tears and quick acceptance. I couldn't help but wish that Harvey had started his story right where it actually left off--with the two boys out, as a couple at school and at home. How would they deal with the mean kids at school? Would Ste's homosexuality be the impetus he needed to get out of an abusive household? And what does the new generation of gay teens have to say to the older gay community? None of these questions get answered, and it's a shame, because those are the kinds of issues that could have pushed this good movie toward greatness. Hopefully, Jonathan Harvey will write his next movie about what happens after the coming out. If he does, other filmmakers should carefully consider following his lead and look to other more interesting stories--and they are legion--that the gay universe has to offer.