Chutney Popcorn

"Chutney Popcorn" is a warmhearted, earnest, sincere story with a subtle sense-of-humor. With all the ear marks of a low budget independent film, this flick moves with serenity and honesty through the lives of some New York City dwellers including a surrogate mother, some Indian-Americans, some lesbians, and some others. Not for the mindless masses, this flick will play best with those who appreciate brave independent films.

"Chutney Popcorn" takes on major issues-- lesbian identity, cultural identity, and intergenerational differences. However, I could never believe in the basic situation. This, in turn, prevented me from becoming involved with the characters and their plights.

The protagonist, Reena, played by Director Nisha Ganatra, is a henna artist in a beauty parlor. Her partner, Lisa--I missed her occupation--is played by Jill Hennessy.

Ms. Hennessy's great beauty unbalances the plot. We never understand why these two partners love each other, and what there is about Reena that makes Lisa stay with her through the ups and downs of the fairly predictable plot.

Several other lesbian women hover around the couple, but their place is the film was never clear to me.

Any couple has difficulties in their relationship. No doubt--even in New York City--same-gender couples have more difficulties, and culturally-diverse couples have still more problems.

I give the director credit for focussing on these problems. However, I don't think she really explored the problems in depth. Basically, she placed them before us on the screen, and then solved them for us.

This is a film that I wish had been better. I believe it is worth seeing, but not worth a special effort.

What really stands out about Chutney Popcorn is the sense of humor that persists through an emotional plot, and this gives it a good degree of realism. Even as the family is falling apart, one can still laugh at their quirks. Life, and the funny moments that define it, goes on for these people. The humor transforms this film from the overdone melodrama it could have been into a sweet and convincing story.

The realistic quality of this film is what makes it so wonderful, in my opinion. The characters are really genuine human beings who talk like real people instead of actors with a script. There aren't any gaping plot holes or implausible events. There's plenty of lesbian humor that you don't have to be part of the gay culture to understand, and the family's Indian heritage has its parallels in any family's cultural background. The camerawork, acting, everything pretty much makes the film down to earth and real. The movie was a bit slow at times (the plot isn't really conducive to a lot of action) but it held my attention.

If you're a fan of movies about people and family, go see this! Expect more character-based humor than slapstick - it's not so much a comedy as a story that happens to have funny moments. Check this movie out, it's a lot of fun.

Shout out to production and location management on this film. This movie is a little gem among similar fare with so many diverse outlooks that every scene gives you a nugget of character. The colors make this film really pop; along with Nisha's use of visual metaphor melting together seamlessly.

However, Nisha is no actor and the ADR can be pretty....uncanny at times. Like "The Room" levels of bad dubbing of lines that can break focus for many viewers.

For what this film is -- a low-budget indie targeted mostly at the expanding lesbian audience -- this isn't too bad of a film. Not my cup of tea, but there's an earnestness and grit that this production has that you can't help respecting.

That being said --

I felt that the central character of Rena was almost Job-like in dealing with family issues, and that most people would have blown off the family by that point. I certainly had a hard time believing that anyone would have offered to carry a surrogate pregnancy for a sister as demeaning and awful as Rena's. I also felt that the actress playing Rena (also the director) was half-asleep during most of the movie. The part needed more energy.

Most of the rest of the principals turned in good performances, especially Jillian Hennessey from Law & Order (I almost didn't recognize her without the dark hair and business suit). Some of the peripheral characters were Offbeat-stereotype lesbians; not much to work with there. The script suffered from some ridiculous dialogue and situations. The worst was probably in the waiting room, where two of the minor characters crudely act out a birth (in front of the two grandmothers, no less) and then petulantly wonder why Rena's taking so long. Come on, these are lesbians, not idiots. I think they understand the birth process a little better than that. I think children of eight understand the birth process better than that, and have better manners as well.

Like I said, not my cup of tea, and has some serious shortcomings, but it was a good effort and is worth a watch, if you don't mind the subject matter.