If there was such a place as Gay DisneyWorld, writer/director Thomas Bezucha would have you believe it was located not in San Francisco, Provincetown or Key West, but in Big Eden, Montana.  That's right, Montana – the place that's just one state removed from Matthew Shepard's murder.  If that seems an unlikely scenario to you, welcome to the club, but it's one of the things that has made Bezucha's film so endearing to audiences across the country.

Bezucha's Big Eden is about a hopelessly unattached Manhattan artist named Henry Hart (Arye Gross, Gone in 60 Seconds), who, on the eve of his big opening, gets a call conveying some bad news – his grandfather has had a stroke.  So Henry blows off his opening and races home to Montana to take care of his widower granddad (and if there was ever a theme that would scare off homophobes, it'd be gay artists and their big openings...not to mention strokes and blowing things off).

From the minute he steps foot in Big Eden, all Henry can think about is his old high school crush and hetero best friend Dean Stewart (Tim DeKay, Party of Five), who, coincidentally, has just split up with his wife.  Between fighting with Grandpa Sam (George Coe) over his special diet and fending off the Widow Thayer's (Nan Martin, The Drew Carey Show) attempts to pair him off with breeder girls, Henry reconnects with Dean, who seems way too excited to see his old friend.  And in typical fashion, Henry gets all clumsy when he's around Dean.

In the meantime, a Native American named Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig, who was Daniel Day-Lewis’ brother in The Last of the Mohicans), who runs the town's general store, has developed an attraction to Henry.  Pike is asked to deliver meals prepared by the Widow Thayer to Henry and Sam, but instead find fancy recipes online and prepares delicious meals for the two men, while making his dog eat the Widow's yucky grub.  Pike can't even make eye contact with Henry, which mistakenly comes off as rude behavior.

Because all of this is happening in an extremely rural Montana town with a population slightly larger than Mariah Carey's fan base, you'd expect there to be some kind of anti-gay backlash, but there isn't.  In fact, most of the citizens of Big Eden bend over backward to help Pike win over Henry (because it's, like, so obvious Dean matches up better with the town's mayor).  Eden is nothing more than a small-town gay love triangle with no antagonist and very little conflict.

Then again, what do I know?  Eden has won oodles of awards from various gay and lesbian festivals, but also took home the top two trophies at the Cleveland fest, beating critically praised stuff like Memento, Amores Perros, With a Friend Like Harry and The Circle.  Aside from the gay angle, Eden is a formulaic mess.  Besides the breathtaking scenery and another chance to see Louise Fletcher teamed up with a really tall Indian (a la One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Eden is only interesting for the fact its star plays a character that's returning to his hometown...not unlike Gross' former television co-star Ellen DeGeneres, whose new show is about the same thing.

1:57 –

for some mature thematic material