the end of the affair
by Douglas Messerli
Zsoly Vatany (screenwriter and
director) Halves of Three / 2024 [13 minutes]
The British film Halves of Three,
is yet another short film in which one of the central characters, beloved by
others, is moving away the next day, and the young man who desperately loves
him more than just a friend, finally gets up the nerve, too late of course, to
tell him.
In this case, it is Isaac (Frankie Golding) is who finally moving on to
the university in Birmingham, leaving his close friends Gheorghe (Gil Sidaway),
a foreign exchange student, and Arma (Helen Bishop) behind. Two days before his
leave-taking three play tennis, Isaac and Arma obviously far better plays than
Gheorghe, and they alternate playing together on the same side or Arma joining
him.
But
there is also something flirtatious about Isaac’s gentle treatment of Gheorghe,
even as he lights a cigarette for him and particularly in their almost naked
shower conversation after their tennis match. What’s clear is that Gheorghe is
fully in love with his companion, imagining the two making as they shower in separate
stalls wherein they cannot catch a glimpse of each other’s bodies.
What Isaac primarily talks about, however, is how fond of Arma he has
become, and now, on his last night in
London, wants to tell her that he is in love with her.
Gheorghe thinks it is not a good idea, particularly since it can lead
nowhere given Isaac’s soon-to-be-absence. He argues, moreover, that she, as
usual, will simply laugh it off with a witticism. But Isaac is convinced that
they may still be able to have a long term distant relationship. But as his
conversation continues, it becomes obvious that Gheorghe is distracted, somehow
even more remote that usual, while still discouraging the decision for Isaac to
confess his love.
Finally, Isaac becomes convinced that the reason his friend is so
unresponsive is that he is also in love with her, and confronts him, receiving
only denials from Gheorghe, as Isaac finally pushes him up against a wall
demanding he confess. Angry, Gheorghe lashes out wrestling with Isaac on the
ground, each tumbling over the other until Isaac finally realizes from the look
in Gheorghe’s eyes and his behavior, that it is he himself that Gheorghe loves.
As the two stand erect again he kisses Gheorghe, who momentarily stands
in a film lenses that has swathed the two in purple; but the clear daylight
quickly returns, and Gheorghe immediately runs off, now furious with himself for
having spoken what can have no significance and will forever alter their friendship,
as he returns to their usual meeting place under an old tree with three
inexplicable tree stumps upon which the trio sit each time they meet up.
Isaac soon also shows up to the spot, the two boys refusing to talk too
one another, but in a gesture of caring with Isaac now offering him a cigarette
from a pack he has bought through the loaned ID of a friend. When Arma joins
them, she senses the tension between them, perhaps the only one who has
realized all along that the closeness between the gay boy and the straight is
far more wrought than either of them realizes.
Isaac does not tell Arma that he loves her, and Gheorghe almost refuses
to speak, realizing that now any possibility of real love between them is not
possible, and that he will soon lose his secret lover forever. Yet in a strange
way, having spoken the truth, he feels freer and is able to accept the loss.
Our
last image is of the three friends sitting their usual places, in pure quietude,
not drinking or celebrating in the way they had originally planned.
It is a moving acceptance of the changes they now all must face as they
individually move on with their lives.
If this is not quite a profound work of art, it is a touching portrayal
of friendship, love, and possibilities about to be lost while necessarily being
assimilated by three very different individuals.
Los Angeles, 10/23/2026
Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog
(October 2026).
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