"Come As You Are" (The Guardian 07/06/13)

Come As You Are (15) 115 mins ***

This Belgian romp heads south in the vein of countless post-Porky’s teenpics, with a trio of hopelessly horny young men keen to offload their virginities during a visit to a Spanish brothel. There’s a twist, though: paraplegic Philip (Robrecht vanden Thoren), blind Jozef (Tom Audenaert), and wheelchair-bound Lars (Gilles de Schryver) have very different relationships with their own bodies. Inspired by the story of Asta Philpot, the Leeds lad whose attempts to juggle sexual satisfaction with arthrogryposis were first set out in a BBC One documentary, Geoffrey Enthoven’s film doesn’t quite push the representational envelope in the way 2000’s Uneasy Riders or 2004’s Aaltra did: these boys’ frustrations and hang-ups get worked out with cinematic TLC. Still, it’s an unarguable crowdpleaser, gently nudging everybody on screen and in the audience along to a more enlightened, not to mention more relaxed, place. 

Come As You Are opens in selected cinemas from today.