Late Bloomers

While most movies show two model like hot woman in a love relationship, this one shows two ordinary women getting to know themselves and then each other.

Connie Nelson plays Dinah Groshardt (an unattached middle aged woman who is made fun off by her students for her lack of love life) , a trigonometry teacher at a high school where Carly Lumpkin (played by Dee Hennigan) works in the principal's office and her husband Ron Lumpkin (played by Gary Carter) teaches algebra.

Carly and Ron have two kids, rebel daughter Val (Jonah Marsh) & pleasing son Avery (Graham Skipper). There is no longer any love left in Carly and Ron's relationship and she has issues with her own body. One day in class Dinah confiscates a love note between Val & her boyfriend Jamie Hooper (Esteban Powell), a budding rock star. Later while Dinah comes to the Lumpkins for dinner, Carly goes through Dinah's purse while she is out playing ball with Ron. She mistakes the note for an affair between the two. Later when she realizes her mistake and confesses to Dinah it leads to friendship and much more.

The movie is thoroughly enjoyable and gives a realistic look at how a love relationship between two women, its effects on their personal and professional lives and a good anticipated ending.

While Connie Nelson looks like Jeremy Irons (ha!ha!, it is Dee Hennigan, who steals the show as Carly who wants to share her love between her new partner and her family. A little obese and petite, she is extremely attractive and looks like a million dollars. Watch out for her basketball scenes with Connie Nelson, one in the buff and one in their wedding dress. Gary Carter plays the unfortunate but understanding husband with great style.

I came upon this movie by accident while channel surfing one morning. At first, I thought it was an "Afterschool Special," being repeated, but the midnight basketball session dispelled that idea. I'm glad to see this film was shown during the day, when people can actually see it, rather than played in the middle of the night, when the world is sleeping. It's hard to play this story out without making some aspect of it melodramatic: but I give the cast an "A+" for making me care how it all would end. (Hey: Didn't I see some of the 'Wishbone' players in this one?)

This move was slow in parts but I love it because I was in it, in the basketball scene I am the large bald guy in the stands, I had cancer at the time and it gave me something to do.

Connie Nelson (not to be confused with Connie Nielsen; in fact she looks like David Warner) is a female basketball coach who falls in love with a female school secretary, creating an uproar at the high school. Hennigan is touching as the overweight secretary in a sexless marriage whose life is renewed when she meets Nelson. Carter is good as Hennigan's perplexed husband, who is also a teacher at the school. Although it feels at times like an after-school TV special, it is saved by the interesting characters and pretty good acting by the large cast. It is competently written and directed by the Dyer sisters, who have not done anything since.

The film was good. I liked the plot and as the story developed I enjoyed the love story very much. The Actors ( DEE and Connie) played their parts well and I hope to see more from them in the future. I give this film an A+.