Forgive me for the title. Think of it as a leader into what sounds like an exploitative film, but is in reality a thoughtful film about deep love among adolescents. There is some nudity in a sex scene between two girls who are young enough to look like teens, and one is actually under eighteen. The film has even been referred to as a ‘lesbian’ film, but that is really a lazy way of thinking about it. Piper Perabo has earned a small following, and although not a star when this was filmed, is the only one people will recognize for now.

The film was released ‘unrated’ in America, which means I was lucky to see it in my local theater, and it will probably never be on the shelves of Blockbuster Video. This is too bad because I am impressed with a little independent film like this standing behind its rating when it could have removed its nudity more. In comparison look at Piper Perabo’s last film, “Coyote Ugly”, which afraid of getting higher than a PG-13 took out all the sexual material it could in a film whose setting, plot line, and characters demanded so much more.

The movie is based upon a novel called “The Wives of Bath”. I had not heard of the novel before seeing this film. It takes place in a catholic girl’s school somewhere in New England, although it was filmed in Canada. This is not the strict and restrictive environment we are used to seeing in movies about catholic girl’s schools. This almost seems to be a school without teachers. Actually, I think we only ever see two teachers, who are also perhaps administrators at the school. In the beginning of the film, they realize that someone has spiked the punchbowl at their outdoor dance. They assume it is Piper’s character, but don’t seem to really care. They just pour the punchbowl out onto the lawn and enjoy the rock and roll music with the dancing students.

In the few scenes with the teachers, they do actually seem to want to help the students in trouble instead of wanting to punish them. I imagine a lot more was done with this in the book, and possibly left on the cutting room floor. These teachers do care, but scenes with them are infrequent enough that when we do see them trying to help, we know it isn’t really going to be enough.

Piper Perabo plays Pauline. She is introduced to us as the person that every school has at least one of. The one who aspires to be different by being daring, dangerous and a show off. She seems loud and full of energy, probably because she likes the attention. I believe Piper filmed this movie before her starring role in “Coyote Ugly” (lets forget “Rocky & Bullwinkle” for the time being), but I cannot tell this for sure. She is only 23, but has shown that she has great roles and hopefully movies ahead of her.

In this film she actually has to go through a lot of emotional states. She is someone who is in love with a women at first in secret, and then later obsessive enough that she doesn’t care who knows it. She is hurt by the lack of attention her family has given her. She is hurt by the lack of real friends she has, and later by their ostracizing of her. She shows warmth when caring for her wounded raptor friend.

This truly is a very complex performance. There is a scene where dressed in full fencing garb she storms into the library to stand on a table and declare her love for someone who cannot return it because of peer pressure. This scene could easily have been played wrong, and made the whole film feel like an Afterschool Special. Another scene has her challenging a boy to a duel for the love of their woman. This too could have come off by an amateur as something laughable, but we can tell she is serious, and so can the boys. I don’t think this performance will win her an Oscar, but I think anyone who sees it will have to respect her acting, even if they don’t like her films.

Jessica Paré plays Victoria (“Tori”), and was under eighteen when the movie was filmed. This movie was filmed in Canada, and it is possible that they don’t have the same ‘no nudity while under eighteen’ laws that American films have. This is probably why the film was released unrated. I remember thinking she looked a little like a slightly younger Gwenyth Paltrow, while my movie companion thought she looked far more like Liv Tyler. Looking her up on the IMDB.COM yielded no other widely seen parts, and I am a little surprised. She had a brave role to play, and she did it very well.

When we first meet her, she is in love with Pauline, and although wants to keep it a secret, doesn’t try all that hard around their roommate. Later in the film, she is caught by her little sister waking up in Pauline’s bed. Her sister is disturbed by this and wants to tell their parents. In order to backpedal out of the situation, Victoria not only denies the affair, does stop sleeping with Pauline, but also starts to date guys from a nearby school, just to prove to her sister and her classmates that she isn’t a lesbian. I think she actually managed to convince herself after a few nights of being groped by boys in the forest outside of the school.

Mischa Barton plays Mary, AKA “Mouse”. Her most prominent role to date has been as the dead child in “The Sixth Sense” who had been poisoned by her mother. The story is actually told by her, but this probably only really works well in the novel. In the movie the other characters are so strong, and so many scenes are filmed away from her, that she really only provides periodic narration. But her nickname holds true. She truly does seem mousy as if she always wants to be at the edge of the room watching the excitement. The script only asks her to stand up for herself once or twice in the film and she does so realistically for her character. We can sense her slightly quivering lip as she tries to tell off some girls, instead of gaining a huge quantity of confidence that we hadn’t seen before.

Mouse is not familiar with the world of outgoing people willing to take chances. When she first catches her roommates kissing she figures that they are probably just getting practice for boys later. She does not seem sexually aware, or even knowledgeable about lesbianism when the film starts. When everything starts to go poorly for the couple she tries to play both sides from the middle. She does like both her roommates and doesn’t seem willing to either takes sides or to challenge one of the other, even when she sees something she doesn’t like. Yet circumstances force her to spend more time befriending Pauline because Victoria has new more popular girls to hang out with.

This film has almost no male characters, and the few we do see are at best caricatures when opposed to the fully realized lead actresses. There is one man in film who comes close, however. This is the school gardener played by Graham Greene. I’ve always loved the way he speaks, and this film knows how to use his gift to the fullest. His wise words of wisdom manage to be insightful, clever, and funny all at the same time. I wouldn’t have minded at all if we had seen more of him.

I certainly recommend the film, although it isn’t necessarily a successful one. The film is daring and different, and I will see any movie that even tries to do this. However, I think that the film either needed to be longer, or more focused on what it was trying to say and show. Most everyone I talked to has problems with the ending. Although it is somewhat predictable, it still doesn’t necessarily work. When the credits start to roll, I was frustrated, but glad I saw it.

I hope that as these actresses become more popular, this film isn’t only known as the source for the topless shots of the lead actresses floating around web pages.

Note: On my own movie review web page, I only gave the film 2½ stars.




Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older