"Making Love" is an engrossing and well acted romantic drama on a mature subject. Its characters and situations are easily understood, and one feels for their marital problems and their steps toward solutions. An unusually good looking cast has been assembled, and all play their parts convincingly. The musical score and photography give the film a somewhat slick and glossy look, but the production is a very good one, thanks to a quite mature script and subject matter. For all its slickness, "Making Love" is a film one tends to remember.

When released 24 years ago, critics dismissed this as a "mawkish soaper" and it was shunned at the box office due to its "controversial" subject matter. In reality, it is a well scripted, well acted, and more than competently directed film. Quite the opposite of a melodrama, Jackson, Ontkean, and Hamlin turn in subtle and richly textured performances. The screenplay is equally satisfying: tugging at your heartstrings without being overly sentimental or maudlin.

Ontkean is "Zack" Elliott, a handsome young physician who has spent his life thus far as a compassionate and dedicated doctor, husband, and son. In all of his commitment to "do the right thing" he has been suppressing the fact that he is indeed gay. Because of his stalwart ethics, he comes to the realization that he can no longer deceive his devoted wife. Ontkean shines as a man who is overcome with internal turmoil, yet through the love for his wife, is determined to do what is best for her (more so than even himself).

The precepts of self-sacrifice, honesty, and integrity in the Ontkean and Jackson characters is much of the appeal of the story. Jackson is convincing as Claire Elliott, the wife who, despite her initial feelings of anger and betrayal, experiences acceptance, understanding, and ultimately, unconditional love. An especially touching moment comes in the final scene when, despite her best efforts to be super human, she subtly reveals her sense of loss after a brief reunion with Zack.

Hamlin is Bart, the openly gay, randy, self-involved West Hollywood habitué and Zack's first same-sex encounter. Through narration and in his intimate dialog with Zack, he, too, exposes his humanity, need for acceptance, and sense of loss at the foregone opportunity of a serious relationship with Zack. This is a surprisingly underrated landmark film in that it serves as a rare bridge between the pre-80's depiction of gay men as mincing, self-loathing social misfits and the heavy-handed political correctness of the marginalized "queer cinema" to follow. In contrast to today's movies, there is a near absence of trendy fashions, catch-phrases, soundtrack, and banal preachy social conceits of the moment. That's what sets this apart as an enduring film.

I saw this in its first limited release, in New York City with a group of gay friends, in February of 1982, on a Saturday night. The picture had been out for about a week, and everyone, I thought, knew what it was about. We saw it in a major East Side theater, the only one where it was being shown as I remember.

Well, I was mistaken about the "informed" audience! This mixed, supposedly knowledgeable New York audience nearly rioted at the first on-screen kiss, discreetly photographed, in a darkened, shadowy corner of a room, in a long shot! The gays (including my group) were cheering and applauding, the older, presumably straight folks were screaming things like "How revolting!" and "Oh, my God!" as they bolted from the theater. This only increased at the second kiss, in close-up, a few moments later. I was never more astonished in my life!

I just saw this again, after a long time. Dated though it is, I still felt the message was clear: be true to yourself. The final ironic shot says it all.