"Guinevere" is a movie that's likely to hit home with a lot of viewers, even those who haven't personally been involved in either side of an older man/younger woman relationship. You don't necessarily have had to walk in the shoes of 21-year-old Harper Sloane to understand why she took the path she did or why she willingly put up with a lover most women her age would have steered clear of in the first place.
It all comes down to acceptance. For many people in their teens and early 20s, that's something that's surprisingly hard to find in their homes, in their schools, even in their own peer groups. As adolescents struggle with their changing bodies, attitudes and emotions, most of them look for some kind of confirmation that they're on the right track and they're not nearly as awkward or uncouth or stupid as they often feel.
Sometimes this kind of reassurance comes from an understanding teacher or an older friend. Or it may come from someone who doesn't necessarily have the young person's best interests at heart. In Harper's case, it comes from a man named Connie Fitzpatrick, who is more than twice her age and who may or may not be a positive force in shaping her life.
Harper is played by Canada's answer to Jodie Foster, the radiant Sarah Polley. She first came to prominence as a child star in movies such as "One Magic Christmas" and director Terry Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," and in the 10 years since, she's become an exceptionally versatile actress who's particularly good at getting a handle on characters who rise above their circumstances. She was a schoolgirl who slept with her father's friends to pay the bills in director Atom Egoyan's "Exotica," a crippled survivor of a near-fatal accident in "The Sweet Hereafter" and, perhaps to show she can lighten up a bit when she needs to, she gave a saucy, funny performance as a savvy grocery store clerk who successfully marketed chewable aspirin as a designer drug for the rave set in director Doug Liman's terrific sleeper "Go."
Here, Polley immediately zeroes on Harper's insecurities and quiet fears and brings them delicately to the surface. Despite her intelligence and poise, Harper feels utterly out of place among her wealthy family and does her best to fade into the wallpaper as everyone she knows gathers to celebrate her sister's wedding. Connie (Stephen Rea) has been hired to photograph the reception and he and Harper bond immediately. He sees the unexplored potential in Harper and draws her into his life. She follows willingly, and he christens her "Guinevere."
Not long afterward, Harper will find out she's the latest in a substantial string of Guineveres. In some movies -- and in a lot of romances -- that would be the end of the story, but not here. Writer-director Audrey Wells realizes these two still have much more to learn about -- and from -- each other.
Wells previously wrote the wonderful 1996 comedy "The Truth About Cats and Dogs," in which Janeane Garafolo was cast as a young woman who hid behind jokes and sarcasm in the hope no one would see her romantic side. "Guinevere" offers the flip side of that story. Instead of hiding from love, Harper is starving for a little bit of art and idealism after having grown up in a house full of cynics. Garafalo's character in "Cats and Dogs" was ultimately softened up by her first brush with passion, but we know Harper will experience just the opposite effect.
Wearing his bohemian air as comfortably as an old sweater, Rea makes Connie likable, even though we may question his motives and morals. Harper may be Guinevere, but Connie is not the dashing Lancelot, nor is he the dream-driven Arthur. He's just a middle-aged man who wants someone to look up to him, and Harper's mother (Jean Smart) nails him down perfectly when she tells him the one thing Harper can give that the 50ish Connie can't get from a woman his own age: that sense of youthful awe.
When Connie and Harper are together, you don't get a sense of great passion, but rather a feeling you're watching a couple of people who are getting what they need from each other at this particular moment. That kind of reciprocity may not be the basis for a timeless love story, but it's exactly what you'll find in a lot of friendships, relationships and marriages. As this resonant movie clearly illustrates, many of us don't find that elusive Camelot, especially not the first time out. James Sanford
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