Lost and Delirious

I had to wait a few extra days for Netflix to send me this movie from California, why they wouldn't keep at least one copy in the Midwest escapes me, but I suppose that's okay. It was worth the wait, it had been a little while since I had seen a film like this.

We are thrown into the world of a girls boarding school, Ive seen plenty of movies revolving around the premise of kids in a boarding school, so nothing new there. All these movies tend to go the same, there is a different kid who doesn't fit in because they are a Jew (School Ties) or maybe a little to imaginative (A Little Princess) Whatever the thing that makes them different it always means they have to go head to head with either the administration or with their fellow students. This film makes it very clear that the teachers are with the main characters because maybe they are like them or they just understand how life is. Its the young girls at the school who cause the problems.

The story is simple, there are three girls living together in the dorms, the new girl who hates her father and misses her dead mother. Then there is the girl who has to make her parents happy, and then the one who doesn't think she has a family (shes adopted) who is very intense. Well the new girl quickly learns that her new roommates are lesbians, and that they are together. This isn't something that bothers her, she is just happy to be part of the group, that is until some of the younger girls discover them naked in bed. So of course they have to deny it, but the intense girl doesn't want to, and doesn't see why she should have to. There is no happy ending here, like every couple in every story that involves a wedge between the lovers its only a matter of time until one flips out and does something rash and desperate.

As much as I wanted the intense girl to stop what she was doing in trying to get her lover back and just move on, I really wanted her not to give up. You can see her ex-lover is dying inside because she has to deny who she really is. As much of a fool she makes of herself in trying to win back her lovers affections its the right thing to do, as childish as it is she is experiencing emotions fully head on and unapologetically. People might view "Romeo and Juliette" as being a great romance, but the characters are simply stupid, and running on hormones, but, and this is a big but, what they are feeling is real, to them, in that moment. They still like the characters in this movie make the wrong choices but they aren't doing it to suit their parents, or to fit into society, they do what they do out of love.

There are moments that the dialogue made me cringe, and seemed somewhat trite and over written, but I liked the message and the way it was done, and how it was unforgiving. The acting was different from what I would expect from those actors, including Piper Perabo and Mischa Barton. The way it was shot was nothing special, very straight forward, in that was I wish they had taken some risks. It wasn't anything new or grand, but it made its point and then walked away, or flew away. It seems that sometimes certain people cant live with the pain of the world and they do foolish things. This movie is an example of that, and about how people look for acceptance but most often cant find it. Like "Brokeback Mountain" I wouldn't call this Gay/Lesb. interest, its simply a love story gone wrong. Two people pulled apart by the circumstances of the world. Sad, and true. 7/10 stars.