| Director | Xavier Dolan |
|---|---|
| Box office | $1.9 million |
Matthias and Maxime are lifelong friends in their late twenties living in Montreal. The motivated but uptight Matthias is a successful businessman with a caring girlfriend, Sarah, while the quieter, gentler Maxime is a bartender who spends time taking care of his abusive, alcoholic mother. Matthias is primed for a promotion at his job while Maxime is preparing to move to Australia for work opportunities.
The two take a trip to the lakeside cabin of a wealthy friend, Rivette. Rivette's pushy sister, Érika, is a film student and pressures Matthias and Maxime to appear in her student short film, as her two actors have dropped out. Maxime capitulates and agrees to participate in the project, and Matthias is later forced to join after losing a bet to Rivette. They are upset to later learn that their scene will require them to kiss, but their friends remind them that they had kissed before, years earlier in high school, which Matthias claimed was the result of him being under the influence of party drugs. Nevertheless, they share a kiss (offscreen) for the film.
The kiss has a profound, distracting effect on Matthias, who cannot sleep the next morning and goes for a swim, accidentally ending up on the wrong side of the lake; later, he turns down a job promotion and argues with Sarah. He is further unnerved when Erika shows the completed short film at a get-together thrown by her mother, though Sarah seems to understand his conflicted feelings. Meanwhile, Maxime turns over care of his mother's estate to his aunt and tries to obtain a letter of recommendation from Matthias's father, who is a successful businessman in Chicago. Both men are further confused by the kiss due to their understood interest in women, and Matthias is especially upset because of his relationship with Sarah.
Matthias tries to get out of attending Maxime's party, apparently in denial that he will actually leave for Australia, but Sarah pushes for him to go. He upsets their friends by arriving late, making a poor speech for Maxime, and initially turning down the invitation for an afterparty with the rest of their friends, before Sarah convinces him to attend. At the afterparty, he further antagonizes the group by starting an argument during a party game and getting into a fight, culminating in insulting Maxime's facial birthmark. Matthias leaves the party angrily before returning and apologizing. After the night is over, he and Maxime share a kiss and a brief sexual encounter, but Matthias breaks away, leaving Maxime hurt and confused.
Later, Matthias goes to a strip club with a business associate before abruptly leaving to run through the streets. Maxime cleans out his house in preparation for moving and discovers a childhood drawing of himself and Matthias living on a farm together, which touches him. He finally receives a call back from the office of Matthias' father, as he had inquired after his missing letter of recommendation; the secretary informs him that it was actually sent to Matthias, who had failed to forward it to him. Maxime realizes Matthias' state of denial and has the letter forwarded to his email directly. Ready to leave, Maxime departs his home to meet a friend who will take him to the airport, and is happy to see that Matthias is there waiting for him as well.