Lesbian marries a Belgian gay man to keep him in the States; they fall in love for real, but he cheats on her--with a woman. Gay leading characters (male or female) in a mainstream motion picture hadn't been in vogue for a number of years--you'd have to go back to "The Fox" or "The Killing of Sister George" in 1968, "The Boys in the Band" in 1970 and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in 1971--which makes screenwriter Henry Olek's efforts here doubly disappointing. He has the brave notion to introduce homosexual people in a bland, middle-of-the-road setting (no camp attributes),and then drops the ball (or, perhaps, the ball was taken and dropped for him). You can't blame the actors--Meg Foster or Perry King--they are doing what they were assigned to do, to push forward a false plot. But they are pawns in a heterosexual's fantasy, that the gay lifestyle can be "corrected" with the "right partner." The agenda here is obviously unbalanced, and yet director Paul Aaron forges on with Olek's romantic clichés as if the only audience for their picture were straight, upper-class men and women who want to be able to say when it's over, "I always knew it was a choice." * from ****

Filmmaker Paul Aaron ("A Force of One", "Deadly Force") began his career with this odd spin on the romantic formula. Written by Henry Olek, the premise has a gay female real estate agent, Stella (Meg Foster),and a gay male designer, Albert (Perry King),living as housemates. He turns out to be an illegal alien, and she gets the bright idea to marry him so he won't be faced with deportation. One night, after some drunken birthday celebrations, they end up in bed together and thereafter develop romantic feelings for each other.

This certainly had the potential to be a total misfire, and could still easily be seen as problematic to a number of viewers. But it actually works fairly well, at least in its first half, before succumbing to corniness and predictability in its second half. Some audience members could probably do without the character of Stellas' previous lover Phyllis (Valerie Curtin, '9 to 5'),who's clearly unbalanced. But the characters of Stella and Albert are treated as healthy, happy, balanced individuals. This admittedly wouldn't be as successful if King and especially Foster weren't so good in their respective roles. You really do like these two, despite everything.

Available now on Blu-ray in its original R-rated form (with some brief profanity and nudity),this was unsurprisingly quite controversial 43 years ago. Even today, it's not going to be to all (or very many) tastes. But curious movie watchers may still want to give this a look, if only for the performances (including Peter Donat ("The China Syndrome"),as a prominent orchestra conductor who was Alberts' previous romantic partner).

Seven out of 10.

as a gay male i don't like being pigeon holed into any particular category. it's funny how the gay community loves to claim alternative lifestyle status but very rarely likes any one in their own community to step out of the prescribed mold. if you are gay, that's it, bottom line, and any diversity of your sexuality is discarded or questioned. if you're heterosexual you're allowed to be Bi or experiment. it often seems that in the gay community experimenting outside of your gay sexuality is frowned on.

that's why 'A Different Story' still remains a breath of something different decades later. it explores sexual themes that a lot of gay movies don't like to touch on. i mean if you can be latently gay you can probably be latently heterosexual too. and contrary to criticism of the movie, lots of gay people have been married or attracted to the opposite sex.

at the time of release in 1978, a lot of people thought this film wasn't daring enough or too afraid to break convention and be a "all gay" movie. now with the gay network Logo and gay movies more common, the outlook of this movie now seems to be less conventional and breaks a standard mold. the two main character seem very unconventional by current gay standards.

it's very easy to relate to the main protagonist in this story thanks to to very fine performances by Perry King and Meg foster who are both excellent and radiate warmth and depth which helps to make their characters seem human and very fallible.

this is a excellent movie for everyone as long as prejudice doesn't interfere with your viewing. prejudice from both sides, straight and gay which this movie is vulnerable to, unfortunately.