Normally, you'd be well advised to take a wide berth around any mid-nineties gay-themed romantic comedy, but this one's actually okay.

German heartthrob Til Schweiger plays Axel, a would be photographer who looks like a model. Axel's hot looks bring him endless temptation, and not all of it unwanted - he's busted by his girlfriend Doro (Katja Riemann) fucking another woman in a toilet cubicle in the film's opening sequence.

After Doro kicks him out, Axel meets Norbert (Joachim Krol) who offers him his couch for as long as he needs it. Norbert's gay, single, and lonely and he's attracted to Axel from the first moment. Dim bulb Axel doesn't seem to notice, until smitten Norbert kisses his shoulder while they're secretly watching holiday slides in Doro's flat (it's that kind of comedy). Doro arrives home unexpectedly, discovers Norbert in the closet - where else - then announces she's pregnant, and despite everything, welcomes Axel back into the fold. But Axel's wandering eye can't be stopped, and it drags his dick with it, straight into a secret liaison at Norbert's place with an old high school chum who's grown up into a sex-bomb.

The standard high jinx of Maybe, Maybe Not is supported by a refreshingly unsweet ensemble of fun but flawed gay guys and some straight women who can't take a bar of them. No best friends' weddings here, and no next best things either - the straight women live in their world, the gay guys live in theirs. Never the twain etc., until one of the women's boyfriends crosses over for a visit, and then, all hell breaks loose. You'll clench your teeth waiting for the expected drag queen versus hetero bitch catfight, but thankfully it never comes. You'll keep them clenched waiting for Axel to suddenly go gay and run off with Norbert, but that doesn't happen either.

Best of all, even thoughpoor Norbert misses out on the love of a lifetime (not only are Axel's looks through the roof, he and Norbert make good buddies) and settles instead for a rough-as-guts boyfriend and the occasional night out at the bars, he's not painted tragic. This is a gay-themed comedy that remembers it's a comedy, and though there's plenty of tenderness, and some astute socio-sexual observations, the gay characters of Maybe, Maybe Not don't float in and out of the movie on clouds of politics and altruism, they're central to the story and therefore as likely as anyone to end up on the wrong side of romance be it their fault or someone else's.

This is one of the rare films that really has its gay and straight characters on the same team - everybody wins some and loses some, and there's no special pocket of gay perfection.

Review by Mark Adnum