Hey folks, Harry here... and here in Austin we are getting ready for the annual Gay & Lesbian Film Festival... and I have to say that out of the crop of films showing this year... this is the movie that interests me most. I am quite fond of the trailer and I have heard some strong buzz on the movie. BTW... For folks that are interested, John Waters is coming to Austin to speak at the festival on September 2nd I believe... I'll have to dig around for that flyer, but I'll give you the details later. First off I want to warn you obnoxious bastards that might take this talk back to be rude, crude and socially unacceptable towards the Gay and Lesbian community. I'll ban you faster than you can name the first openly gay film director in Hollywood. You have been warned.
I haven't seen a review for this Better Than Chocolate on the site, and I found it highly enjoyable, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'll try to avoid any major spoilers.
Homophobe warning! This is a film featuring a relationship between two young women. Run for your closed little minds.
Better Than Chocolate was a Canadian production apparently, but I know it's currently being released in the US because I read about how the ratings board had a problem with the poster. You know that if they won't let Sleepy Hollow have a picture of a headless guy, there's no way they'll let a film use a picture of two women embracing. My god, you can actually see one woman's naked back! Note that's not backside, just back.
Now I am a hopeless romantic, and this is a romantic comedy, so not everyone may enjoy it as much as I did, but I found it damn good. Admittedly the romantic comedy is not neccessarily the highest form of cinematic art, but it's put to good use here. There's some subtlety in this film, and an attempt to point out a few things without beating you over the head with them.
Better Than Chocolate features Maggie and Kim, two young lesbians who meet and basicly fall in love at first sight. Slight problem is that Maggie's mom Lila is unexpectedly coming to live with her and Maggie's not out of the closet. In fact, Maggie doesn't even have an apartment at first. OK, the setup sounds a bit trite, but the characters and actors make it work.
Karyn Dwyer does an outstanding job as Maggie throughout the entire film. She nails every scene to the wall and is totally intense with every emotion that crosses her face. You almost feel as if you're watching real life through a hidden camera when she's on the screen, and isn't that what film is supposed to be like?
The other standout is Wendy Crewson as Maggie's mother Lila. She's downright painful to watch in every scene, but she's supposed to be.
I don't know about you, but I've got a great and very caring mother. The problem with great mothers though is that they can go beyond motherly and into psycho occasionally. I think it's a professional hazard. Like when she broke into my apartment just because she knew I was sick with a cold and couldn't get hold of me for two hours and so became convinced that I was lying dead on the floor. Lila is like this 24 hours a day.
The rest of the supporting cast acquits themselves very nicely. Christina Cox does a good job as Maggie's love, and although her character's a bit cliched Anne-Marie MacDonald also does a nice turn as Maggie's boss Frances. Not to be missed is Peter Outerbridge who is marvelous as their transexual friend Judy, and does a terrific cabaret number halfway through the film.
As far as the plot goes, the nice thing about this one is that there's a bit more going on than usual for a romantic comedy. The two main backplots (Maggie's mom and Judy's love life) get some serious screen time, not just the obligatory 5 minutes and there's some depth to the scenes all around. The director manages to sneak in a few comments about bigotry and intolerance but they have some nuance to them. Like the Neo-Nazi's who are basicly cowards, or the lesbian who's way more mean to Judy than any straight person in the film. The film doesn't quite wrap up when you expect either. Just when that Hollywood training says events should be starting to come togethor, a few more things happen.
That actually leads to my one complaint about the film. When the ending does come it seems a bit too quick and pat compared to how the rest of the film developed. All the problems are suddenly wrapped up in about 30 seconds. Frankly I wonder if they ran out of money, since it reminded me a lot of the ending from The Mummy earlier in the summer. Not exactly unsatisfying, it just didn't quite fit the feel of the rest of the film.
Oh, and I suppose I can't review a lesbian romantic comedy without commenting on the love scenes. Yes there are a couple, but like the rest of the film the director handles these with a deft touch. They're sexy while being tasteful and not titillating and keep nicely with the tone of rest of the movie.
Aloha
Buck Thighmaster
