'Summer Storm' is cliched coming-out movie

The cliches roll in like thunder during the 2004 German coming-out/coming-of-age movie Summer Storm (Sommersturm).

A gregarious member of a Bavarian rowing team (Robert Stadlober) falls in love with his straight best friend (Kostja Ullmann).

Regent Releasing 'Summer Storm' 2 out of 5 stars Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner Starring: Marlon Kittel, Miriam Morgenstern, Robert Stadlober, Kostja Ullmann, Alicja Bachleda-Curus Run time: 98 minutes Release date: March 17, 2006 Rating: R for sexuality, language and drug content. Language: German with English subtitles. On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Summer Storm'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Meanwhile, during a impossibly bucolic summer camp, the gay crew from Berlin beckons to our protagonist to join their "team."

You can imagine what happens next.

No, I mean it. You can imagine it because, if you follow gay cinema at all, you've seen this movie dozens of times before.

Only difference here is the sweetly unaffected performances from the German cast and a decidedly European lack of shame about sex in general.

Director Marco Kreuzpaintner is to be credited for keeping the human relationships poised, unforced, while giving the spectacular Alpine scenery a supporting role.

If the subject or its narrative development hardly break new ground, Summer Storm demonstrates that coming out is traumatic in any language, but dramatically less so 37 years after New York's Stonewall riots and within the context of European Union athletics.

It would be far more disturbing for American audiences if the sport was football or if the young men served in hyper-masculine roles like soldiers or cowboys. Oh wait, that's been done.