In the Family: the review

Just saw this gay movie entitled "In the Family".  It is a story about Cody and Joey and their son Chip.  Cody's wife died while giving birth to Chip.  Cody and Joey got together 7 months later and they have been together for the past 6 years.  Cody and Joey are dads to Chip.  Then one day Cody died of a car accident.  His only Will was written when Chip was still an infant.  Cody named his sister Aileen as legal guardian to Chip and executor of his estate.  Things got bad between Aileen and Joey which resulted to Aileen getting custody of Chip.  Chip tried to take legal recourse to reclaim Joey but the law was clearly not on his side.  Then Joey encountered this wise lawyer who adviced him that things in real life are not necessarily applicable to what the law says.  He advised Joey to get to talk with Aileen since they have not been talking lately.  Joey requested a deposition with Aileen and in return for that deposition, he willingly gave up all his claims on any joint property and finances he and Cody held when they were together.   During the deposition, Joey was able to explain things to Aileen and got things ironed out.  Aileen came to her senses and gave Chip back to Joey.

The story taught us an important lesson that talking, instead of legal actions, can often solved plenty of interpersonal issues that we have.  This gave me hope on the capacity for goodness in each and every one of us.  I like this aspect of the story.  What I did not like was the lack of editing.  The movie ran 3 hours long and there were plenty of scenes that could have been cut out or cut short.  It was so long that I almost gave up finishing the movie.

The story also made me reflect on a very real aspect of gay relationship.  It reinforced my belief why gay civil marriage should be legalized.  If Cody and Joey were legally married, Joey would have a lot more legal recourse to keep Chip with him.  Very often the surviving half of a gay relationship are swept aside by the family of the deceased half.  Just very unfair.

Because the story was so long and boring, not even the "lesson" of the story could redeem it for me.  I give this a 1.75 star out of 5.