Rock Haven is the story of a religious boy and his mother who move to a secluded, beachside/cliffside/natureside area where Brady, the religious boy, meets Clifford, a gay boy (gasp!) and (surprise!) Brady has an internal conflict between religion and his sexuality.
The actor who plays Brady is really cute and has the most adorable, tiny little gap between his front teeth, and does the most with the dialogue he's given, which is sometimes spot on for the situation, and at other times (specifically in his dealings with this ultra-conservative mother) is so poor that I just had to stare at his face and ignore the words. This was a feat easily accomplished, by the way. Clifford, with a largely absent father, and a liberal "non-traditional" (his words) mother, understands the underlying conflict, but has a plan for helping Brady see his light.
I was a bit surprised overall: I had rented the movie because it reminded me of one of my very favorite gay-themed movies, Latter Days (in a nutshell: Mormon meets kinda slutty party boy), and while pieces of it were similar, it was different enough to have its own voice. It's low-budget (so many of these movies tend to be) and plods along at a nearly 30 beats per minute pace over rarely-changing scenery (honestly, after about the 70th time the boys met at the beach, I started to wonder if they weren't on a one square kilometer island), but it has heart at its core, and so, for the most part, it works.
Score: 7/10
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