Movie: The Houseboy

I recently saw a gay themed movie called The Houseboy (2007). The story revolves around a boy toy and a couple, they have been together (the 3 of them) for a year. The plot takes place over the Christmas period, whereby the couple goes off to visit their families for the holiday season and Ricky, the boy toy, is left to house-sit for them. Just before leaving, Ricky overhears a conversation about the couple possibly wanting a ‘new toy’. Left alone to his thoughts and nobody to share it with over the holidays season (which should be happy, warm and fuzzy), Ricky decides he would commit suicide on Christmas eve and leave his dead body in the couple’s house. The timeline of the movie is roughly a week, the week leading up to Christmas eve. During this time, Ricky tries to connect with random hook ups in order to find a sense of belonging, so that they might help change his mind about pulling the plug.

I enjoyed the movie as a whole… the fact that Ricky was really cute also helped in my enjoyment…hehe... also I felt that it was rather thought provoking. The main character Ricky was left with nothing left in his life to live for. He came out to his mom and she abandoned him all together, his sister on the other hand still accepts him as a brother, but rejects his homosexual lifestyle. And here he is, a sorta toy boy, the third person in a relationship... In essence he really has a false sense of ‘love security’ because its really more of a 2+1 relationship, and not a 3 person relationship. Ricky feels the reality of this when the couple leave to visit their parents over Christmas and cannot bring him along because ‘it would be difficult to explain a 3 way relationship’, so here he is left to house-sit their house. He further feels that he is but a 3rd party in the relationship when he overhears a conversation that implies he will be replaced… by a new toy.

At the very beginning of the movie, the viewers already get the feeling that Ricky is only connected to one of the guy in the couple, and not really with the other. Ricky himself knows deep in his heart that the guy would choose his other half over Ricky, if and when he has to make that decision. So Ricky finds him self in this sad, dark, and lonely place with no self belonging at all… hence the mission to pull the plug.

As I said, the movie was thought provoking, especially for a gay man… a lonely gay man. I certainly don’t want to be in Ricky’s shoes over a holiday season… when everyone is together celebrating with their loved ones, he is abandoned by his supposedly ‘loved ones’ and left by himself to contemplate his loneliness. Realistically this can happen to anyone of us (* as Gareth Gates sings… It can happen to anyone of us), but hopefully we will be stronger than Ricky and not end up like him.

What did Ricky do on the lead up to Christmas eve? What happened on Christmas eve? Was it a happy or a sad ending? I guess you’ll have to watch the movie yourself and find out. A word of warning (or encouragement)… the movie contains frontal nudity and sex scenes.



Signing out.