LATE BLOOMERS
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 6.5 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of ****
United States, 1996
Shown at the 1996 SXSW Film Festival
Running Length: 1:44
MPAA Classification: No MPAA Rating (Mature themes, nudity, sex,
profanity)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Connie Nelson, Dee Hennigan, Gary Carter, Lisa Peterson, Esteban Powell, Joe Nemmers, TA Taylor Director: Julia Dyer Producers: Gretchen Dyer, Stephen Dyer, and Julia Dyer Screenplay: Gretchen Dyer Cinematography: Bill Schwartz
Once, not that many years ago, it was difficult to find an intelligent gay/lesbian love story. Now, with features like GO FISH and JEFFREY reaching multiplex screens, the field is no longer as barren. Nevertheless, there's still quite a bit of fertile ground worth exploring. LATE BLOOMERS encroaches on this territory, taking a "traditional" lesbian romance and adding a twist: both characters are middle-aged, and one is married with two children.
Dinah Groshardt (Connie Nelson) is a lonely high school basketball coach, and Carly Lumpkin (Dee Hennigan) is the principal's secretary. Carly's dissatisfaction with her passionless marriage to her math teacher husband, Ron (Gary Carter), leads her into a friendship with Dinah. For a while, their relationship remains platonic, but Carly and Dinah eventually admit their attraction to each other. Once they become sexually involved, Carly leaves her family to live with Dinah, and rumors about their "perversion" spread throughout the conservative community where they live and work.
In its depiction of an unlikely romance, LATE BLOOMERS is touching and sensitive. The two principal characters are nicely-developed, and Gretchen Dyer's script doesn't condescend to either. The film also examines how Carly's sexual awakening affects her husband's and childrens' lives. The most interesting relationship is that of Carly and her teenage daughter, Val (Lisa Peterson), who feels betrayed by her mother's change of sexual preference.
Of course, once Dinah and Carly come out of the closet, they are universally vilified. LATE BLOOMERS goes over-the-top in portraying the homophobic reactions of the townspeople towards the two women. Every anti-gay cliche is used, and the story becomes oppressively melodramatic. There's even an absurd moment when a woman pulls her daughter off Dinah's basketball team in the middle of a game because she hears a rumor about the coach's relationship with the secretary. This, and other similar moments, weaken LATE BLOOMERS' impact.
Connie Nelson and Dee Hennigan are solid in the lead roles, but Gary Carter is ineffective as Ron, and Lisa Peterson gives an uneven performance. Director Julia Dyer goes for a tone that's part hard- hitting drama and part erotic fairy tale. Her results are mixed -- sometimes the two compliment each other, but there are also moments when they're at cross purposes. Ultimately, LATE BLOOMERS is better-written than many lesbian romances (such as, for example, CLAIRE OF THE MOON or DEVOTION), but it still falls into enough melodramatic traps to keep it from rising into the genre's upper echelon.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net web: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin (or) http://www2.cybernex.net/~berardin
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