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Essence of Dignity wrote on 03/13/2011:

Rock Haven was like no other film that I have seen before. The course of action that this film takes to build up to the final scene is very endearing and respectable. However, there is NO other film that can evenly touch the powerful, yet tender and moving scene between mother and son that Rock Haven happens to close with. I actually rewound the closing scene a few times because I was lost in the depth of all those emotions. Great Film! Rock Haven gets 3.5 stars from me.

Amos Lassen wrote on 02/21/2011:

“Rock Haven”
Religious Polarization
Amos Lassen
Of late there has been much said about religion, sexuality and romance. The three meet head on in “Rock Haven” as a young man with deep spiritual convictions experiences his first feelings of love. Sean Hoagland, a new face on the screen, is Brady, a young man who is deeply involved in his own spirituality. His mother, Marty, moves the two of them to Rock Haven to set up a religious school near the town. Brady and his over protective mother go about setting up the school based upon their religious ideals but things come to a turning point when Clifford appears o the scene. Clifford possesses a worldliness that instantly charms young Brady who falls for his seductive charms and Clifford, likewise, is harming by the young man’s good looks and naiveté. Of course, Brady is conflicted by his feelings which go against everything he has been taught and everything he believes in. However, Clifford’s charm is overwhelming and Brady is forced into coming to terms with his devoutly Christian beliefs.
Here is a movie that many Arkansans should be able to identify with. We all know the difficulties of being gay and living in the “Bible belt”. In this sensual love story, directed by David Lewis (who previously gave us “Under One Roof”—a comedic look at a gay Chinese-American juggling tradition with sexuality), we get a look at the joys and the pains of first love. Yet there is more than that here. We also have the story of how a young man chooses not to abandon his religious and spiritual ideals but finds a higher ground in which to practice what he believes. We get a sense of unity between God and man and man and love as we take a look at the “transformative power of faith” through a spiritual meditation.

Bama wrote on 09/29/2008:

Although the acting is on the verge of being good, I have seen worse. I try to look past the acting in most gay oriented films; if I did not, I would not watch any of them. Needless to say, the movie has a cute story to tell of someone confused about his feelings towards Christianity and Homosexuality. You get the picture. I did not expect that much nudity in the love making seen either. Worth the watch if my review is of any influence.

just a reviewer wrote on 07/05/2008:

.........you find yourself). ///

((Here is my approach to obtaining/viewing/reviewing Gay tales in film form. Simply, it's seeking the holy grail of that genre, or looking for the "Addictive Film"---that movie one returns to time and again). Selection/purchase is based mainly on finding new releases by favorite directors/screenwriters and your comments/reviews at various on-line sites. Sometimes I feel correctly steered by you (the "Keepers" filling my DVD shelves), other times mislead, occasionally badly (the "Throwaways"----and I do toss 'em). Rarely, I come across the "Addictive," those watchable every couple of months or so (see below starred *** area for a list......and some of the "near-Addictive" as well). For some movies, I'll share a review with you, as follows below. Thanks for sticking with me so far.))

((1)). So, Folks......first off, shall we play a little "second-guess the Director" game? Uh.....no, no.....wait---just kidding. After all, doin' the "Monday morning Director-ing" thing is just all too easy a way out.......especially if we're honest and admit that David Lewis did do the biggest, most important-est thing right. What is that, you may ask? Well, in the case of a gay romance, be it a comedy or otherwise, doing the right thing would be finding, and bringing together, two male leads who've got "C-H-E-M-I-S-T-R-Y" with one another. And in the case of Sean Hoagland and Owen Alabado, it's undeniably there---"cutely" there, I might add (a term which fittingly describes them and what we see them come across as). Some leads grab you from the very beginning.......others grow on you. These two are of the latter persuasion, but along the way they do hook you. Honestly, in the initial scenes, I was thinking: these two guys can't act, but before long they were reeling me in. So, maybe this pair didn't have the acting "chops" to give us what a Cyrille Thouvenin and Stephan Guerin-Tillie ("Just A Question Of Love") gave us, or even what a Trevor Wright and Brad Rowe ("Shelter") happily bestowed upon us, but what they did give us was real enough. Thanks, Boys.

((2)). Not to let Director Lewis off the hook completely, while others have already complained of overnumerous surfside and cliffside "nature" scenes, as well as the big misstep of thinking he could effectively/believably play the minister role, I won't have to echo that. BUT.......I do feel I have to add this: in a religious community in which a "Brady's mother" would find herself comfortably at home, no way would I expect to find such a, seemingly, gay-understanding "servant of the lord" as Reverend Brown. (On the other hand, I also wouldn't expect to find in that "little white-steepled church" community a character such as Katheryn Hecht's "Angie," either).

((3)). To me, much of this film pits religious indoctrination (read: interpretation of the bible) vs. learning to be---and accepting---oneself. Brady, finally, epiphanies (please let me make that a verb) that he can be who he is.......and still have his religion. As he, in the end, puts it to his mother: "I just want you to love me".......then forgives her after she replies she can't change either.

((4)). PS--Oh, yeah, and just who's to say that there isn't a good prospect of a "reunion" between a more accepting, "reborn" Brady and a Clifford---whose mother, after all, will still be needing visits at her Rock Haven home?

((5)). ***This film is becoming "Addictive." ***Other such habit formers: "Brokeback Mountain" / "Boy Culture" / "All Over The Guy" / "Second Skin" / "The Man I Love" / "Latter Days"

smumustang wrote on 06/30/2008:

What a disappointment! I had such high hopes for this movie. When the movie begins the cinematography is breathtaking and that is where the positive aspects of this movie ends. The acting is terrible, but then what could those actors do with the terrible writing. The way the boys fall in love is completely unbelievable and their is no continuity in the film. The scenes are not cohesive and feel very choppy. Half way through the movie one is hoping for the conclusion just to put an end to one's misery. All in all the concept of this movie is good but besides the gorgeous photography it lacked poorly in execution.