THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF TWO GIRLS IN LOVE
A film review by Wendy Betts
Copyright 1995 Wendy Betts
Written and directed by Maria Maggenti Starring Laurel Hollomon and Nicole Parker
As sweet and refreshing as a frosty glass of lemonade, this is a lovely little movie that leaves the heart both warmed and aching. It's a tender, very funny, utterly sincere look at first love for two teenagers who seem to have nothing in common--except that they're both girls. Randy, who lives with her aunt in a poor but happy lesbian household, is a social outcast, failing in school; Evie is rich, intellectual and popular. The fact that Randy is white and Evie is black is the least of their problems.
The inevitable culture conflicts that arise when Randy and Evie fall in love are played largely for laughs, as when Evie comes out to her utterly vapid friends, who advise her to try and rent that movie about the two girls who went to the prom, and a marvelous slapstick scene in which the two girls are caught in bed by Evie's mother, who's far more freaked out about the mess they made of her house than about her daughter having sex. But the often broad humor takes nothing away from what the story is really about: falling in love. The typical cliches of first love are shown here with such warmth and charm that they seem newly fresh and unique--just as they do in real life when people fall in love. The girls playing Randy and Evie were so believable that I felt a little embarrassed during a tender scene in which they make love for the first time; although respectfully and fairly modestly filmed, it seemed too personal for a stranger to be watching.
Both comic and romantic, naturally THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURES OF TWO GIRLS IN LOVE is a "feel-good" kind of movie, an accolade it deserves far more than many slicker, more professional films. But although Evie and Randy's problems as a lesbian couple are treated lightly, they're an undercurrent that can never be totally disregarded. The ending of the film doesn't offer a perfect resolution, but poignantly symbolizes both the difficulty any mismatched lovers have of shutting out the censorious voices of the world, and the fact that it is still worth trying.
-- Wendy E. Betts, Editor "The WEB: Celebrating Children's Literature" finger web@deeptht.armory.com; http://www.armory.com/~web/web.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews