Chris & Don: A Love Story (2007)
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Reviews Counted:34
Fresh:32
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: Chris and Don paints an affecting, enlightening portrait of a one-of-a-kind love affair.
Theatrical Release:Jun 13, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $157,417
Synopsis: A sleeper hit at the Telluride Film Festival, Chris & Don: A Love Story is the true-life story of the passionate three-decade relationship between British writer Christopher Isherwood (whose... [More]
Director: Guido Santi, Tina Mascara
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Reviews for Chris & Don: A Love Story
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 3.5/5 |
A wonderfully crafted documentary about a most unusual long-term relationship Full Review |
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A- |
A great, revealing documentary; one of the best films released in 2008 Full Review |
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There are many reasons to see Chris & Don, but the best one I can think of is the chance to see Isherwood and his best friend W.H. Auden, probably the greatest poet of the twentieth century, jumping around together like middle-aged schoolboys in beguiling Full Review |
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3/5 |
The documentary, made after Isherwood’s death and with Bachardy’s enthusiastic participation, is as much a love story as a chronicle of Bachardy’s maturation into a man and an artist. Full Review |
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9/10 |
Long before anyone was talking about gay marriage, that's what Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy had Full Review |
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 C |
Isherwood was the far more interesting subject, but Chris & Don is all about Bachardy -- an observation that feels like opportunism more than love story. Full Review |
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3/4 |
Despite an age difference of 30 years, their connection was immediately electric; their first kiss, the story goes, broke a window. Full Review |
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Surprisingly, this 2007 documentary about their 34-year relationship becomes more engrossing as its focus shifts from Isherwood to Bachardy... Full Review |
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B+ |
It's a sentimental and loving picture, playing out as a leisurely cocktail-hour stroll through an enchanting life. Full Review |
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3.5/4 |
There's a bit of Pygmalion meets The Portrait of Dorian Gray to it, and yet part of the documentary's slyness involves probing those aspects while never losing sight of the pain and glories of any emotional relationship that lasts as long as Full Review |
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A charming, loving portrait electrified by the inclusion of lots of terrific home movie footage. These relics of gay history are worth the rest of the movie. Full Review |
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With delectable-looking home movies of the couple's travels in California and Europe, Chris and Don offers an intimate portrayal of a passionate, enduring association, as well as a social history of postwar life. Full Review |
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Regardless of whether you recognize the names of Christopher Isherwood or Don Bachardy, this masterful documentary draws you into the men's lives like a star-studded bedtime tale. Full Review |
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4/4 |
Santi and Mascara are right to call their film A Love Story, because this is the portrait of a marriage as full and enviable as the greatest unions in literature. Full Review |
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4/5 |
It’s an extraordinary film that gay audiences will find particularly salient, no doubt, yet audiences with an affinity for the writings of Isherwood or nostalgia for the golden age of Hollywood may find it intriguing as well. Full Review |
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A charming, illuminating portrait of the complex and storied queer romance between Isherwood and Bachardy. Full Review |
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The subtitle of the film is 'A Love Story.' The picture makes the worn term fresh, moving. Full Review |
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B+ |
Isherwood and Bachardy's story features cameos by a galaxy of literary and cinema stars, but few are as impressive as the protagonists, who defied the conventions of their times by living openly as a happy, well-adjusted couple. Full Review |
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B+ |
The work is a reflective hodgepodge of unnervingly 'cute' animation, reenactments, archival footage, and Bachardy's own reminiscences, spoken in the singular British accent he invented just as he invented his own unorthodox life. Full Review |
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4/5 |
Chris & Don: A Love Story examines a complicated and enduring relationship that raised eyebrows even in Hollywood. Full Review |
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