Fear of Water

The plot in this movie makes no sense and it's so boring.

I had the pleasure of watching this film last night. It was a nice down-to-earth depiction of adolescence, awakening and responsibilities. However, it left me wanting more. The story was nice and real but at the same time baiting and not going where all the indicators pointed. The ending also felt anti-climactic. No real purpose to tie the knot of the film and its story.

Even though I can find plot holes and such I still enjoyed it. Great acting from Lily Loveless and the rest of the cast.The visual pictures where slow and establishing mixed with fast montages giving the film a nice tempo with mixed effect.

I watched this film on Tubi where it was categorised as 'LBGT' (not my reason for watching it). This is an injustice to the movie because it deserves more than a niche market. It is the story of two girls, each of whom has difficulty finding & keeping friends, who find each other because of the innate decency in themselves. Over the course of the plot - which develops just as you'd like it to, though you fear it won't - they discover that all prejudices and stereotypes become meaningless as you take the time to actually get to know people. Everyone Alexia and Eleanor encounter has problems, which half excuse their oddness and make them deserve human decency and sympathy.

Most meaningfully, the story isn't about lesbian 'awakening' sexuality at all. It's about true friendship and the kind of love that transcends labels. Kate Lane's done a really great job at writing a story and directing a film that's worth more than any pigeonhole category.

I'd recommend this to anyone seeking a youth-oriented film that pushes barriers even as it retains a centre in universal morality and keeps to its core of entertaining and enlightening together.

Fear of Water (2014) was directed by Kate Lane. The basic premise isn't new--girl from the wrong side of the tracks meets girl from the right side of the tracks. However, the premise is carried out very well, and the acting is excellent.

Both Alexia (the rich girl, played by Lily Loveless) and Eleanor (the poor girl, played by Chloe Partridge) appear to be capable and caring. Each girl has her own problems--Alexia's mother is gone, and her grandmother dies on the day after she returns from school for summer vacation.

Eleanor has an out-of-work disabled father and the mother from hell. Eleanor is dealing pot, and apparently harder drugs as well.

Still, their friendship appears genuine, and you can't help wanting that relationship, and their lives, to succeed.

I found the ending of movie to be somewhat contrived. Also, you can tell that Kate Lane is a new director--she hasn't learned how to give us a sense of location. We move from the mean streets to the mansion, to the council flats to a beautiful idyllic lake to an abandoned--but immaculate--playground almost by magic. We viewers need some sense of how we got from A to B and back. She's a good director, and I'm sure she'll learn how to manage this.

This film will probably work a little better on a large screen, but it will be OK on DVD. We saw it at the Little Theatre as part of the laudable Rochester ImageOut LGBT Film Festival.