Queerly Ever After #33: PLAN B (2009)

Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers.

Argentinian filmmaker Marco Berger‘s feature film debut Plan B centers on a man named Bruno (Manuel Vignau). Bruno has recently split from his longtime girlfriend Laura (Mercedes Quinteros), and although they still occasionally hook up, Bruno wants them to officially get back together. Laura, however, has a new boyfriend, Pablo (Lucas Ferraro). After learning from mutual friend Verónica (Carolina Stegmayer, although we do not learn that is her character’s name until 15 minutes to the end of the movie) that Pablo told her he was once with another man, which we later learn was not actually true but a lie Pablo told, Bruno, hatches a plan.

The Boyfriend Seduction

Bruno concludes that if Laura will not dump Pablo to get back together with him, he will need to split them up. To do so, he decides that he is going to seduce Pablo. A plan that his friend Victor (Damián Canduci, as another character whose name we don’t learn until the last few minutes of the film) thinks is absurd. Concept-wise, I actually love this idea. Countless rom-coms have been made where a spurned lover decides to make their ex jealous through means of a new lover, but in the end, falls in love with the new “fake” boyfriend/girlfriend. But I can’t think of any other movie where to achieve making their ex jealous, they decide to woo the ex’s new paramour, who happens to be the same gender as them.

Of course, this is a queerly ever after, and also a popular rom-com plot-line, so you know where this is going. Bruno does succeed in seducing Pablo, but what he didn’t expect, was that in trying to get Pablo to fall in love with him, he too would fall in love with Pablo. Eventually, both men break things off with Laura for good and decide to be with each other. Not only am I fond of this twist on a familiar plot, but it’s great to see a film where both the leads are bisexual.

Nothing is Perfect

As much as I really enjoyed the concept of this film, there are a lot of flaws. As I previously alluded to, it takes the script entirely too long to actually tell us the names of many of the characters, and that includes the leads. That’s not to say every time one character speaks to another they have to refer to them by their names, but when the audience is meeting a character for the first time, it would be helpful to let us know who they are. It definitely should not be that we are just learning the names of characters we have met several times before in the last few minutes of the movie.

Another, more major issue, is that oftentimes Pablo and Bruno are not given enough of their own character traits, and thus occasionally act too similar. As we know, neither Bruno nor Pablo has had any previous sexual experiences with other men, so they are both discovering their bisexuality together. This could be great, but instead, we are treated to a dance of waffling between the two that feels drawn out more to extend the movie’s length than for story necessity. For example, after Bruno professes his love to Pablo, Pablo admits he also has feelings for Bruno and proposes they sleep together to see if those feelings are real. Although hesitant at first, Bruno agrees, but then Pablo backs out. There are multiple scenes like this that only serve to keep the story bobbing along instead of wrapping up sooner. Do the two men eventually get together? Of course, but a few of the false starts could have been edited out. Yes, the movie would have been shorter, but it also would have been more cohesive.

In Conclusion: Plan B

Despite its flaws, there is a certain charm to this film. While it could have used some more editing to fix a few pacing problems, it is not a bad movie. At the end of the day, it’s a sweet little story that turns a familiar plot on its head in a positive way. I would love to see a slightly more polished remake one day.

Plan B made the festival rounds in 2009 and 2010 before its eventual DVD release. For all release information, see here.

Watch Plan B