.

For a movie about how no obstacle can stand in the way of true love, Morgan is awfully depressing. When we first meet the title character in Michael D. Akers’ latest love story, he’s waking up to a pretty meaningless existence. He’s recently handicapped and, after wheeling himself to the fridge for a beer, he plops himself on the couch and just starts piling them back while watching television. The man just got up and the movie just got started. I miss the days when gay meant happy.

Structurally, Morgan is extremely straight-forward. Morgan, played by sweet-faced, Leo Minaya, used to be an award-winning athlete before his accident. His doting mother (Madalyn McKay) sees him as a burden; his best friend is a not-so-sassy, black girl (Darra Boyd); and he can’t seem to get his, uh, equipment to work. Basically, everything is set up so that by the time Morgan meets Dean (Jack Kesy) in a park one night, the audience is ready to let love overcome all of Morgan’s misfortune. There’s no other choice really.

My being a sucker for a pretty face and a naive champion of love conquering all, I fell for the journey these two boys took to find love, despite the corny dialogue and sometimes forced delivery. Some of the harder questions, like how they can be intimate with each other or how they both wish Morgan could still walk, are touched on in some of the film’s more engaging moments. The trouble is they find love way too soon, which leaves Akers with too much time to fill after the fact. Subsequently, Morgan amounts to a reasonably effective, somewhat endearing but mostly missed opportunity to celebrate how anyone can find love if they’re open to seeing it.

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Joseph Belanger

Joseph Belanger is a Toronto-based film enthusiast who was born and bred in Montreal. He has been published in the National Post and on CBC Arts Online. He also writes a monthly column for The Movie Network website. He has been writing about film since 2005 on Black Sheep Reviews, a site he created and still writes for today. Joseph’s favorite film is “Annie Hall”, which coincidentally won the Oscar for Best Picture on his first birthday.

Latest posts by Joseph Belanger (see all)

• The comedy of Cosmopolis: an interview with David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson – June 6, 2012
• Nobody’s Goon: an interview with Marc-André Grondin – May 29, 2012
• Review: Naked As We Came – Inside Out Film Festival 2012 – May 17, 2012