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plot summary: This was a made-for-HBO movie, and was adapted from a play. The play was written by a NYC theater troupe (Tectonic Theatre) who visited Laramie, WY and interviewed its residents about their feelings on the Matthew Shepard case, and then they took their words and made it into this play...
who's the "many more" you mentioned?: Christina Ricci, Laura Linney, Summer Phoenix, Dylan Baker, Jeremy Davies, Clea DuVall, Peter Fonda, Joshua Jackson, Amy Madigan, Camryn Manheim, and that's just to name a handful...
how many times i cried: only once, during the courtroom scene when Matt's father (played by Terry Kinney)
how many times i laughed: not even once.
Like any of us, the Matthew Shepard case shocked, horrified, saddened, scared us...that kinda goes without saying! And thank god, this movie doesn't really focus so much on the attacks themselves (because that would've made me throw up, a'la Boys Don't Cry), but focuses more on the townpeople and how the attacks made them feel.
Janeane plays a lesbian teacher, and after the murder, other homosexuals come out of the closet, and together they sorta band together and give each other support which they felt they didn't have before. Camryn plays a theater director, and brings her usual earthy, matter-of-fact characterization to this woman as she prepares to put on a performance of "Angels in America"...there's a whole bunch of sorta small-town people vignettes, including some ignorant ones, like the woman that Laura Linney portrays.
Obviously, it's a very unique concept and it's very well executed, too. However, it was kinda hard to get past the "STAR-STUDDED" cast of "indie" actors...I imagine that seeing this on the stage, where it was original conceived, is a MUCH more powerful experience. (janice.06.05)
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