That's an unexpected irony coming from a movie about a young gay man (Matt Newton) finding the courage to stand up for what he believes in, rather than allowing himself to be used as yet another marketing tool in his conservative father's bid for reelection.

The further irony, of course, is that positioning Poster Boy for gay audiences means the movie will be preaching to the choir rather than reaching viewers who might consider reassessing their own values after seeing the provocative story. It's a shame that a statement so determined to change the world is being pigeon-holed as a special interest movie.

Poster Boy has a troubled history. Steel Magnolias director Herbert Ross was reportedly slated to make the movie with Billy Crudup in the lead. Unfortunately, Ross died in 2001, leaving the project to Douglas Keeve, who dropped out at the last minute. Editor Zak Tucker stepped up to take charge, making his directing debut in the process.

Under the circumstances, it's impressive that Poster Boy turned out as well as it did. Tucker approaches the material with utmost seriousness, using handheld cameras, cool blue filters and vérité styling to help mask the soap opera twists and outlandish coincidences of the plot, but there's only so much he can do with Lecia Rosenthal and Ryan Shiraki's glorified TV-movie script.

Senator Jack Kray (Michael Lerner) may be "Mr. Family Values" to the media, but his son Henry sees the dysfunction of their real-life family gatherings. Kray's hypocrisy makes a damning statement about many politicians' inability to live by the values they legislate, and yet the movie draws him as such a one-note villain that he becomes too easy a target for the movie's attack.

Henry is no angel either, throwing tantrums and resorting to casual sex whenever he gets upset. The movie's only vaguely sympathetic character is an activist named Anthony (Jack Noseworthy), a vaguely Ron Howard-looking 30-something who hooks up with Henry at a college party and then, after discovering the kid's connection to the senator, schemes to embarrass the politician by outing his gay son.

Tucker treats it all as if he's making the next Traffic or All the President's Men. While the movie's discussion points certainly rank on par with those political thrillers, there's not enough substance for the movie to succeed on its own merits, a point underscored by posters selling the movie on Newton's perfectly airbrushed chest.

[as featured in The Miami Herald]