Adam Tyree | The Places We Won't Walk / 2022

the problems of hawaii

by Douglas Messerli

 

Adam Tyree (screenwriter and director) The Places We Won't Walk / 2022 [12 minutes]

 

Adam Tyree’s gentle love story, The Places We Won’t Walk, begins at a party hosted by James (Se Oh) and his gay partner Trevor (Eric Graise). After dinner in conversation with their other guests, one of their lesbian friends, Stephanie (Skarlett Redd) announces that she and her lover Janelle (Hina Sabatine) are getting married and, of course, all of these friends are invited. The wedding will be a simple affair on the beach in Hawaii.

      It sounds perfect to nearly everyone and James quickly agrees that they’ll be there. But Trevor suddenly grows silent and distant. Trevor, with both legs cut off at the knee, lives in a wheel chair and realizes that sand is not precisely compatible with his major method of transportation. And if nothing else he will need his lover’s help simply to negotiate the cracked sidewalks and the sand itself.

      After a night of love making, he announces that he won’t go, but if James would like to attend alone that it’s all right. Strangely, the caring and loving James has not realized that his fiercely independent and self-pitying companion finally feels defeated, as he feels he would be holding back James from sharing all the reasons why people are so excited about Hawaii. No walks on the beach for him. No swimming. No hiking. He feels as if he is entirely selfish, refusing to permit all his own lover’s simple joys in life.

       When he finally breaks down and explains the difficulties he perceives, James assures him that if anyone had someone so special as Trevor in their lives that they would gladly give up swimming, walks along the beach, and other the outdoor activities that Hawaii proffers. Besides they can party, drink, and eat (James is an excellent chef, and cooks their meals, while Trevor shops).

     By this short work’s end, he has put Trevor’s fears to rest after a few tears, and perhaps he will join in the fun even if there are many places where they won’t walk, the song by Bruno Major and Finlay Robson which closes this tender little film.

       Tyree has been making excellent short films about people who overcome difficulties and misunderstandings since at least 2012, among them In Half (2012), Audition (2015), Open Mic (2018), and Green Light (2020). And there are others I look forward to seeing and write about.

 

Los Angeles, December 10, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2024).