Jimmy in Saigon

Jimmy in Saigon, dir. Peter McDowell, 2022, USA, 89m.

Sunday, June 19, 2022, 1:15pm Castro 🙂

+Streaming

In 1972, when gay filmmaker Peter McDowell was only 5, his older brother Jimmy died in Vietnam. The family said very little about Jimmy, and even less about his death, leaving a lingering sense of unfinished business and a loss not yet properly grieved. Jimmy was drafted into the army to fight in Vietnam, but after his tour of duty ended and he was sent home to the United States, he returned there to live as a civilian, saying that he wanted to escape the soulless colonialist capitalism of America, but also that he wanted to enjoy the “hedonistic pleasures” of Vietnam, including sex, drugs, food, and music.

Many years later, as an adult, Peter resolved to try to track down what had happened to his brother and what his life had been like in Vietnam after he got out of the army. In particular, there were tantalizing clues that perhaps Jimmy, too, was gay, despite references to his “girlfriend.” Peter manages to track down the woman who was the supposed girlfriend, as well as a few other people who knew Jimmy, and gradually pieces together at least some of the reality of the brother he never really knew.

Unfortunately, the process is painfully slow on screen, feeling at times like watching in real time as someone tries to solve a literal jigsaw puzzle. There is certainly some deeply moving content, but rather an excess of exposition. Recommended.

• IMDb page • Official website • Trailer •