Get Real offers up a complicated protagonist in Steven Carter, a 16 year old living in suburban Basingstoke. He has no qualms about picking up older men but hasn't summoned the courage to inform his parents of his sexual orientation. Apart from some unpleasant encounters with bullying jocks, Steven fits in well at school and enjoys an especially close and frank relationship with Linda, his wise-cracking next-door neighbour.

When Steven discovers that the school's Head Boy—John, big man on campus, idolised by the boys, mooned over by the girls—is gay and interested in him, his romantic dreams come true... at a price he may not be prepared to pay. Gel Real wonderfully integrates its gay theme into a larger portrait of students struggling with questions of status and sexuality. Ben Silverstone as Steven (lately seen as the young Humbert Humbert in Adrian Lyne's remake of Lolita) is assured, as befitting his role, but achieves dimensions of vulnerability and depth unusual in the world of Dawson's Creek teens.