Snails in the Rain (2013)

• Year: 2013
• Released: 20 Jun 2013
• Country: Israel
• Adwords: 3 wins & 5 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2924590/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/snails_in_the_rain
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Hebrew
• MPA Rating: Unrated
• Genre: Drama, Romance
• Runtime: 82 min
• Writer: Yossi Avni Levy, Yariv Mozer
• Director: Yariv Mozer
• Cast: Yoav Reuveni, Yehuda Nahari Halevi, Yariv Mozer
• Keywords: in the closet, homoeroticism, lgbt, gay theme,

	6.3/10
	45% – Critics
	false% – Audience

Snails in the Rain Storyline

Tel Aviv, Summer 1989. Boaz, a beautiful and alluring linguistics student, receives anonymous, male-written love letters that undermine his sexual identity and interfere with his peaceful life with his beloved girlfriend.

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Snails in the Rain Movie Reviews

A good film about a serious situation

Snails in the Rain (2013) is an Israeli film written and directed by Yariv Mozer. It stars Yoav Reuveni as Boaz, a handsome and intelligent college student. Life is going well for Boaz–he’s awaiting a scholarship offer that will probably arrive, he’s well-liked, and he has a charming woman who is his fiancée.

When Boaz checks his mailbox for the scholarship letter, what he finds instead is a series of notes written by an anonymous male admirer.

Boaz is uncertain about his sexual orientation. He had a male partner when he was in the military, but appears committed to his female partner now.

The problem–for me–arose when Boaz committed an act of sexual violence against his partner. She let him off with, “That hurt. Don’t do it again.” I think she should have seen this as a red flag.

You’ll have to see the movie to learn how it ends. My guess is that the story will play out for Boaz long after the closing shot of the film.

We saw this movie at the Little Theatre as part of the wonderful ImageOut Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on DVD.

Its an okay film.

I enjoyed the film. But I was expecting something a little more involved, than this one sided story. That being said, I still recommend seeing it.

Boaz is the usual ‘gay’ dream. Which Yoav Reuveni lives up to in the most photogenic way. However, that is all you get. You never know anything more than the notion that his love interest is a writer who loves to write about Boaz. The viewer only barely gets to know the secret writer until well into the final moments of the film, and then when he is revealed, we don’t get to know the writer in the way we got to know Boaz.

As a one sided story, the story of Boaz is quite stereotypical. Bi- sexual man has repressed feelings for male touch, and every time he gets touched in that special way by a man he’s into, he reverts to over- masculinity, and beats up said man-interests every time.

Sure, you could call this an emotional investigation into Boaz, as he wrestles with his yearning for male touch, while accepting that his life is with his girlfriend. But that’s all you are offered. Take it or leave it, seeing Yoav Reuveni rise and fall in sweaty homoerotic lust has its moments. But, you’re kind of left wishing there was some resolution to the letters and the writer, that takes a more creative approach to this ultimately quite common gay story; rather than taking the film in that direction, we are left with the ever old stereotype caricature of gay guy likes man, man doesn’t like gay guy. Man moves on with girlfriend…

Had the script and timeline of the film started with the ending, and moved backwards to the beginning, maybe we could have had a more tidy ending, with some depth to the secret writer. Alas though, we are left with as much insight on the writer at the end of the film as the beginning. Such is life.

Promising, but sadly disapointing.

The handsome Boaz is waiting for an admissions letter to a university. Everytime he goes and checks his mailbox there is a letter of an anonymous man. The romantic letters have a big effect on Boaz, because he is clearly struggeling with his true feelings. With the flashbacks from his time in the army this gets more and more evident. But he is a “real¨ man, with a girlfriend, so he shouldn’t have these feelings…

You can probably guess where this is going, hence the disapointing part. It starts out looking like a movie that will be different, but in the end it is again one of those movies which just seem to want to deliver the following message: You will be sad and lonely if you are gay, better choose the straight way… Which after having watched this movie, makes you feel exactly that way…

On a side note: The title “Snails in the rain” is explained, visually, at the very end of the movie. And it just made me scratch my head, thinking: Why???

Therefore I give it a 5 out of 10, not bad, just sad.