Literary agent Bill Clegg wrote about his struggle with crack in his book “Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man.’’ Now his ex-partner, Ira Sachs, has fictionalized their story in a tough, well-acted little indie called “Keep the Lights On.’’
Sachs’ doppelganger is Erik (Thure Lindhardt of “Brotherhood’’), a gay Danish filmmaker who finds 1998 New York City a movable feast of anonymous hookups, despite the specter of AIDS.
Still, Erik happily commits to a relationship with Paul (Zachary Booth), a closeted lawyer who reminds him that he’s the one who works for a living, while Erik struggles to finish a piece on a pioneering gay filmmaker.
As the years roll by, Paul’s drug use, casual at first, becomes so debilitating that Erik stages an intervention involving their pals, the more prominent of whom are played by Paprika Steen and Julianne Nicholson.
Sachs maintains a tight focus on Erik and Paul as the latter emerges from rehab and predictably fails. There’s a heartbreaking scene where Erik tracks down his missing, blitzed-out lover at a downtown hotel, where Paul is obliviously having sex with a hustler.
By this point, it’s obvious that Erik and Paul are locked in a dance of co-dependence — and that neither will be able to move on until the well-meaning Erik accepts that he’s become part of Paul’s problem.