MULLIGANS

Canada, 2008, 92 minutes, Colour.

Dan Payne, Thea Gill, Charlie David, Derek James, Grace Vukovich..

Directed by Chip Hale.

Mulligan sounds like the name of a family. However, it is a golf term, the player getting a second try, a second attempt. This is explained early in the film – which does have a lot of golf throughout.

The film came out in 2008, from Canada, and it is interesting to look at Mulligans in the context of the time, films featuring gay characters, movements around the world, same-sex unions and, especially, political and social implications of same-sex marriages.

It is summer on a lake. The son of the family brings a good friend home from college. The friend is Chase, played by the writer of the film, Charlie David. He tires of his friend trying to set him up with girls, the party life, and finally comes out to his friend as gay.

The core of the film is not so much about Chase as a gay character, this being taken for granted, his behaviour, attitudes, way of communicating. Rather, it is the reaction of the various members of the family. The friend is taken aback and takes a long time to come to terms with the reality. The mother is wary, protective about sexuality, especially with her eight-year-old precocious daughter who seems to get a fixation on one of her teachers.

But the main character is the father. He and his sweetheart married very young, at a time when gay orientation was not acknowledged. He becomes very friendly with Chase and, while his wife and daughter are away, they have a sexual encounter. With the ensuing complexities, both wife and daughter glimpse the couple and their interactions in the woods.

Ultimately, the issues are out in the open, and the father has to make a decision about his life and his marriage.

1. The title, the initial explanation, golf, a second try? The importance of golf throughout the film, for and against, successful and diameter, working on the golf links? Topic of discussion, being forbidden? Metaphor?
2. Canadian production, cast? British Columbia locations, the home, summer atmosphere, golf course, the woods? The musical score?
3. The situation, Tyler at college, his friends, Chase, the artist, travelling to Tyler’s parents? The summer situation, the family, Chase and sharing with Tyler, meals together, conversation, the welcome from Nathan, from Stacy, Birdie and her being outspoken?
4. On the golf course, Nathan and his love for golf, conversation, Tyler and his skills, Chase trying out, awkward? Stacy and her being tired of golf talk? Two men working on the golf course and renewal, the course, fences…?
5. Tyler and his partying, his girlfriend, Chase of the party, uncomfortable, talking, meeting Jarrod?
6. C will hase is gay, coming out to Tyler, Tyler and his disbelief, unable to handle the situation, cautious of intimacy, issues of language?
7. Stacy, with Birdie, the issue of the swimming pool and the little boy’s conversation, taking Birdie away, tennis, the coach, Bertie wanting her ears pierced, holding the coach up as an ideal? Stacy, exasperation, the decision to play golf? On the course, seeing Nathan and Chased together? Birdie later indicating she had seen the kiss?
8. The family going to the grandmothers, cutting short the experience, coming home?
9. Nathan and chased together for the weekend, the attraction, the intimacy, the talk, Nathan and Stacy and the teenage pregnancy, marrying, the 1980s? His not coming out? Suppressing his orientation? The sexual encounter with Chase, the swim? The sudden return home?
10. The effect on Chase, talking with Jarrod, moving out, staying with him?
11. The effect on Nathan, the tension with Stacie, birdie and her observations, the discussions, civilised, Stacy and her disbelief, but thinking about the past, talking things over with Nathan, his decision to move out? The agreements?
12. Tyler, confused, angry, walking out? Jarrod persuading him to go to the bus stop, the farewell?
13. A film of 2008, gay themes in films of the 21^st-century, more open and frank, issues of repression, homophobia, honesty and resolutions?