You Are My Sunshine

Directed by David Hastings

Lightbeam Productions

2022 

From Lightbeam Productions comes a new feature film, You Are My Sunshine, from writer and director David Hastings.

Filmed on location in the West Midlands, the film follows the long-lasting relationship between Tom and Joe and the various reactions to their love from friends and families across decades.

Hastings starts the story in the present day, Tom (Ernest Vernon) and Joe (Charles O'Neill) are a happy couple who seem to be semi-retired, enjoying their golden years together. They share warm, kind banter and show displays of avid affection given their vast time spent with one another.

A romance consisting of a mature, same sex couple is rarely seen on screen in such capacity, and it is refreshing to see it explored here.

Joe has a date to keep that day, he's nervous and Tom offers to accompany him but is told it's for the best and he'll be fine alone. We next see Joe wait patiently inside a cafe when we are introduced to another important character, his sister Ethel (Rosemary Manjunath). She has had a fractured relationship with Joe and sits down with her son John (Jonathan Butler).

Their meet is tense and awkward and ends prematurely with Ethel passing him a lifeless birthday card as she makes a half hearted excuse why she must leave. However, what is the real truth? She disapproves of his sexuality and doesn't care to have a connection with him or Tom. John tries to act as mediator, carefully pushing his mother to try and understand that “it isn't the dark ages any more” but to no avail.

The film has a run time of nearly two hours and ome scenes and conversations tend to run over a little longer than they should. But in the main that doesn't detract from the decent pace director David Hastings and editor Joshua Baggott have established, managing to switch between the 60's and the present day with significant ease.

What we see in the timeline of the younger Tom (Steve Salt) and Joe (Jack Knight) is a a sweet romance with real, natural chemistry. One of You Are My Sunshine's strengths is its strong performances from the cast, in particular Rosemary Manjunath and Steve Salt who both produce complex and deep work.

Whilst I enjoyed both timelines, it was a joy to see how real the 60s felt. The set design, props and costumes really takes the viewer to that place.

That place is where we see love blossom for shy Joe when he first encounters confident Tom at work. Sure of their unconditional connection but unsure of their family and friends knowing, they keep it a secret for years only to be seen one night by Ethel.

You Are My Sunshine does not reinvent the wheel, and it carries some trappings of the genre, including stilted and stuffy dialogue but overall the film manages to remain fresh.

Regardless of the low budget, it is impressive how large the film's scope is. We have large swooping shots of the Black Country peppered throughout the film. A different type of scope, the film doesn't just focus on love but regret, family, homophobia, hope and sadly death.

David Hastings has created a film with an age old tale of love, forbidden by some, but as the film's tagline says, “love is love”.

★★★½☆

Guy Russell

Twitter @BudGuyer