Keep the Lights On *** (2012, Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson) – Classic Movie Review 13,700

Ira Sachs’s 2012 American romantic drama film Keep the Lights On, starring Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth, won the 2012 Berlin Teddy Award for best LGBT feature.

Co-writer/ director Ira Sachs’s 2012 American romantic drama film Keep the Lights On stars Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, and Julianne Nicholson.

Anyone for a tale of substance abuse wrecking true romance? No, I didn’t think so.

Keep the Lights On is a credible, honest and compelling but depressing nine-year saga of two New York City gay guys in a loving but toxic relationship that both of them are scared to end.

In Manhattan, struggling Danish documentary film-maker Erik (Thure Lindhardt) bonds deeply with handsome closeted, drug-taking publishing lawyer Paul (Zachary Booth) after a sexual fling (they meet in 1998 via a phone sex hotline).

They start a loving but complicated long-term relationship, building a home and life together, but their initially loving relationship becomes fuelled and overwhelmed by compulsions and addictions. While Paul struggles with his addiction, Erik struggles to survive and be true to himself.

Romantic drama it may be, but there is no false romance here, nor fake sentimentality, and by the end it has you wishing for both, a fairy tale romance with a happy ending. Both men are behaving badly, even if they have good reasons.

It is hard to watch, quite gruelling, painful and upsetting, though conversely really watchable.

Director: Ira Sachs. Writers: Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias.

Stars: Thure Lindhardt, Zachary Booth, Julianne Nicholson, with Souléymane Sy Savané, Paprika Steen, David Anzuelo, Maria Dizzia, and Miguel Del Toro.

In the film, Erik goes to the Berlin International Film Festival (though shot in NYC) and wins a Teddy Award, which Keep the Lights On then did in real life: the 2012 Teddy Award for best LGBT-related feature at the Berlin International Film Festival.

It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on 20 January 2012 and was released on 7 September 2012 by Music Box Films.

Runtime: 101 minutes.

Sachs based it on his own past relationship with a literary agent who struggled with addiction.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,700

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