Queerly Ever After #20: SHELTER (2007)

Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers.

This week we’re taking a look at a movie that, while not a great movie, I absolutely adore. No, this is not a case of a movie that’s so bad it’s good, but a movie that’s not good enough to be considered great, but is good enough to be lovable. That movie is 2007’s Shelter.

Feel Good Movies

Shelter, written and directed by Jonah Markowitz, follows a young man from poor San Pedro named Zach (Trevor Wright) who has sidelined his dreams of going to CalArts to stay home and help his sister Jeanne (Tina Holmes) take care of her young son Cody (Jackson Wurth.) By help his sister, I mean he basically raises Cody, while Jeanne parties and traipses around at all hours of the day and night. You can probably already tell that this is going to end up being another movie where the central gay couple ends up adopting a child, also know as the genre I am a major sucker for.

Zach finds comfort surfing with, and later in the arms of, his best friend Gabe’s (Ross Thomas) older brother Shaun (Brad Rowe) who has returned home to his ritzy neighborhood of Pacific Bluffs following a breakup. Of course, Zach, who has up until this point not considered himself gay, is uncomfortable being open with Shaun and this leads to tension in their relationship. Eventually Zach realizes that he needs to be open about who he is if he wants to be happy and he and Shaun reconcile.

Family Drama

Zach’s sister Jeanne is not only a terrible mother to Cody, she’s also a terrible person. When she finds out that he’s been hanging out with Shaun, her homophobic colors start to show. When she learns that Zach and Shaun are more than friends she verbally berates Zach, saying that he needed to be a good role model for Cody, but now he’s just, basically a floozy. Yes, the hypocrisy of her words is not lost on Zach who points out that she’s the one who plans on running off to Portland with her boyfriend Alan (Matt Bushell) and leaving Cody home with Zach. I could go on about just how much I hate her, but I won’t, that would be giving her and the real people after whom she is modeled more attention than they deserve.

On the other hand, not only does Cody immediately take to Shaun, but Gabe, while he finds it weird his best friend has fallen in love with his brother, is nothing but supportive. Zach’s ex-girlfriend Tori (Katie Walder) is also supportive and urges him to be happy, regardless of what Jeanne says, and if Jeanne won’t let him take care of Cody if it means Shaun is involved, then she can choose to stay in San Pedro and not run off to Portland, he is her son after all.

Eventually, Jeanne accepts Zach and Shaun as a couple and leaves Cody in their (significantly more capable then her) hands. Zach finally goes after his dreams and attends CalArts and he and Cody move in with Shaun in LA.

Shelter: In Conclusion

At the end of the day, Shelter is a movie that just makes you happy. It’s the kind of film you watch when you want something that is wholesome, but not chaste, that will end happy. Actually, if Two and a Half Men were a sitcom about Zach, Shaun, and Cody then I would’ve watched it. We all like to watch fluff every once in a while and this is the perfect kind.

Shelter had a limited release in the US on March 21, 2008. For all other release dates see here.