Men Up (2023)

Excellent tragicomedy full of emotions, humor, love and friendship. A story destined to make such an important personal problem come to you with an almost continuous smile.

The plot follows five ordinary Welsh men who participate in a clinical trial for Viagra in 1994.

Each faces his own personal challenges and social expectations. Meurig struggles with impotence and his wife's illness, Tommy navigates his identity in a trial aimed primarily at heterosexual men.

Colin fears he doesn't measure up in his phone-initiated romantic relationship, Pete tries to rekindle passion in his marriage, Eddie hides a deep vulnerability behind a facade of strength.

The direction was excellent, the staging superb, but, in my opinion, the performances take the cake.

Iwan Rheon as Meurig gives a convincing performance as a man facing helplessness due to his diabetes and his wife's illness. Rheon manages to convey his character's mix of despair and hope, though at times his performance can feel constrained by the script.

Paul Rhys as Tommy brings an important dimension as a gay man who stands up to the heteronormative norms of the trial. Rhys manages to balance the humor and vulnerability of his character, though his story could have been more deeply explored.

Steffan Rhodri, Phaldut Sharma, and Mark Lewis Jones also deliver solid performances that reflect their characters' various struggles with masculinity and vulnerability. However, like the others, their performances are hampered by a narrative that sometimes feels scattered and superficial.

In those years when dealing with sex issues was done “on tiptoe”, even within couples, five such different men, with such different personal lives, come to connect in a way they could never have imagined.

The cinematography is functional, capturing well the atmosphere of Swansea in the 1990s.

The soundtrack adequately complements the atmosphere of Hard Men, but does not stand out in any significant way. The sound effects and music are appropriate, but fail to elevate the narrative in any noticeable way.

Men Up attempts to balance comedy and drama to explore themes of vulnerability and masculinity, offering an interesting insight into the personal and social struggles of men