Details: Starring Ben Silverstone and Brad Gorton. Directed by Simon Shore. Rated R for language and adult sexual issues. 1 hour, 48 minutes.

Review: If "Get Real" had been released 15 years ago, it might have been of some interest simply because of its gay-teen theme. In 1999, however, its only audience might be 15-year-old gay teens. The movie bravely goes where too many other films have gone before.

Steven Carter (Ben Silverstone) is a British prep school student who's afraid to come out to his parents and most of his pals, but is out enough to go cruising the public toilets. The only one who knows his secret is his best friend, Linda (Charlotte Brittain), who worries about his quickies in the woods. Retorts Steven, "What could happen? Queer-bashed by squirrels?"

Actually, he gets bashed plenty by jock-thugs at school, though they have no idea he really is gay. And neither they nor Steven would ever have guessed that the school's golden boy, handsome track star John Dixon (Brad Gorton), is wrestling with certain feelings himself. Then one day, guess who Steven meets?

The two embark on a passionate but deeply closeted and inherently conflicted affair. Steven wants to shout his love, while John wants to keep it all a secret. Something--or someone--has got to give.

What gives with "Get Real" is that just about everything in it is badly done, from the cliched dialogue and characters to the sub-John Hughes-level plot.

Ironically, "Get Real" gets one thing very right: the predicament in which the John Dixons of the world find themselves. The campus stud has more to lose than the campus outcast.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service