OMG Movie Club

This month's movie is The Dying Gaul. The story of a powerful and seductive Hollywood mogul convinces an impoverished West Hollywood writer, whose lover has recently died of AIDS, to sell his autobiographical screenplay for big bucks. The writer, Robert, knows he'll have to make major changes in the script (like changing the sex of the dying lover). During the rewrite, the producer, Jeffrey, takes Robert under his wing, introducing him to his wife Elaine, herself a closet screenwriter. Jeffrey seduces Robert for sex and Elaine seduces Robert online out of curiosity about his sex life in grief. After Robert acknowledges that he is seeing a married man she realizes it is her husband, she then pulls him into a web using the knowledge of Robert background and their shared therapist to become someone that toys with Robert into thing it could be be dead lover. The entangled triangle of relationships threatens more than the completion of a film script.

What did you think of the story? Of Jeffery and Elaine? What did you think of Robert? Is he The Dying Gaul or was it his lover Martin? What about Roberts vulnerability? Elaine's reaction to finding out that Jeffrey was involved with Robert? Was there a universal theme or lesson? Was it reflective of Hollywood or society in general? What symbolism did you find in the film? Did it remind you of other films or works of art? What did you think of the performances?