This slice of gay coming of age film is quintessentially British. Some elements haven't aged particularly well, but the film's use of Mama Cass, and the character's tentative steps towards acceptance are solid. Plus: Ben Daniels!

| Jul 10, 2024

Beautiful Thing is a four-star mix of joy, discovery, survival, and humor.

| May 3, 2023

It's still heartwarming to see Ste (Scott Neal) and Jamie (Glen Berry), two teenage boys from a tough south London estate, fall in love and win acceptance from their friends and neighbours.

| May 10, 2021

Mostly though, Beautiful Thing works both as a gallery of life in the faceless but commodious blocks thrown up to house the working (and non-working) classes, and an intimate tale of two lonely boys.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 25, 2018

| Original Score: B | Sep 7, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 17, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 16, 2004

just as it 'takes a village' to raise a child, the 'village' elevates this otherwise ordinary drama

| Original Score: B- | Jul 27, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 20, 2003

Beautiful Thing might be the most beloved of all the gay-youth movies released in the late 90s

| Apr 27, 2003

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 10, 2003

Delightful English film which charts the dawning of love between two homosexuals.

| Aug 28, 2002

This movie has a sharply observed sense of family and community and astonishingly natural acting.

| Jan 9, 2002

Because the film is so effective for its first two-thirds and because it has its heart in the right place throughout, audiences may be willing to forgive its final third.

| Feb 14, 2001

In portraying romance, the film transcends its homosexual themes, while at the same time celebrating them.

| Jan 1, 2000

The boys' lives contain few surprises ... but from the other characters there is one astonishment after another.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

If Beautiful Thing were any more sensitive, it would faint.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Manages to do what few films have done -- convey coming out with the specificity that draws viewers in while conveying a universality that hits home.

| Jan 1, 2000