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Shawn is that kind of intelligent and sensitive gay youth — brimming with potential and a natural friendliness — who unfortunately has been born into a dead-end world of poverty. Shawn's world is a depressing, hostile and homophobic place; every day he runs a gauntlet of anti-gay slurs and threats of violence from local toughs.

In finding someone like Martin, Shawn has finally found a special person of intelligence — someone his own age, someone from the “better” outside world. Yet Martin also stands as a cruel reminder of the glaring differences in class and race that divide them. In Martin, Shawn sees the American Dream that he himself can never hope to attain.

In the tragedy that ensues, the film reveals Shawn to be a kind of self-sacrificing Christ figure for Martin's much-needed coming-out. Shawn provides the cathartic life-and-death-lesson through which Martin, by coming out, is redeemed. “Sometimes you get what you're looking for, even from the oddest places,” confesses a choked-up Martin near the film's end.

Sebastian Stan imbues the complex role of Martin with a wealth of James Dean-styled teen angst and moody ambivalence. This is a scared young man caught in the onset of a sexual identity crisis. He clearly needs to come out, but has no knowledge of how to do it. Stan plays Martin like a deer caught in the headlights of life, helplessly awaiting whatever the oncoming truth brings.

Paul James' poignant performance perfectly captures the tragic character of Shawn. He does not resort to clichés or stereotypes. He creates a Shawn that is immediately recognizable as gay — not via an affectation — but as an integral part of a whole, believable person. Shawn's character is a combination of emotional desperation and emotional withdrawal, and it is a realistic portrayal of the dangerous existential dilemmas that face today's inner-city gay youth.

Both Sebastian Stan and Paul James are young, newcomer actors. James recently made his film debut in Cry Wolf, and he also appears in the upcoming Spinning Into Butter starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Sebastian Stan appeared in the teen pulp-horror flick The Covenant and the comedy Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding.

Viola Davis and Isabella Rossellini turn in fine performances in The Architect. Although the characters of Tonya and Julia are opposites in race and class, they are nonetheless twin peaks of deep matriarchal rage and grief. Throughout the film their faces read like tombstones: resolute, bleak and joyless. For these women, nothing in life can continue until the architect unmakes the failed world he has created around them.

In the course of the film it becomes clear that much of what Leo has created in his life — be it public or personal — must be radically deconstructed if there is to be any hope for reconstruction and salvation. In the final scene, a transformed Martin and Leo unexpectedly run into each other at the project. The film ends with the feeling that the father and son now have some serious rebuilding to do — both on their own and with each other.

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