Trick

Falling in love is easy. Getting a room is the hard part. Gabriel (Christian Campbell) is a young musical theater writer, uninspired and down on his luck. The closest he gets to romance and passion is sitting outside his own apartment door listening to the mattress creaking under his womanizing roommate.

Gabriel isn’t only shut out of his own room in New York City; he seems to be shut out of the thrill of life itself. He’s doomed to listening to his high school sweetheart, the aspiring actress Katherine – played with great and not-so-great moments by Tori Spelling (at left) – belt out his lackluster show tunes. Katherine’s longing for the now out-of-the-closet Gabriel only makes his life seem more desolate, his chances for happiness more unlikely – until he breaks away for a solo adventure on the local gay club scene.

Even at the club, there is an excitement that Gabriel doesn’t really blend into until he meets tall, dark and handsome go-go boy Mark (John Paul Pitoc) on the subway. Mark charms him, first feigning sleep so Gabriel can stare at his angelic face – and the rest of him. Mark follows Gabriel off the subway and the two end up at the apartment.

The two young men spend most of the movie trying to find a place to be alone. There’s nothing like a common goal to help potential lovers get to know each other: What could have been a one-night stand turns into tender friendship.

Katherine and the lusty roommate frame this quirky love story nicely, as they act out all the neurotic extremes Gabriel and Mark forget about in their quest. Of course, for a more qualified analysis of the situation, the camera fixes on roommate conquest number five, Judy (Lorri Bagley), a beautiful brunette who sits up naked and unabashed in bed, puffing on a cigarette while offering sex and relationship advice to Gabriel and Mark.

This perky, breast-baring monologue seems almost sexually climactic. At that moment, Judy embodies the idea of the sexual being who thinks, which is Trick’s main theme. That and trying to figure out whether or not Gabriel and Mark are going to make it before the movie ends.

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