April's Shower

Wow this was bad. The only reason I rented it in the first place was because I went to school with Lara Harris (she plays Kelly, and what a horrible English accent! Stick to modeling, Lara!) I couldn't even get through the whole thing and didn't even realize it was about lesbians until I came here to read the reviews. That's how bad it was. I rented it via Netflix and 20 minutes into it, ejected the smelly thing from my DVD and immediately mailed it back. Ack, it was awful! The characters were one-dimensional at best. Porn star named Spring Dawn? Gay sidekick? Obnoxious materialistic straight friend? Slacker brother? Dare I go on? I didn't even see the main character April or her fiancé Paulie on screen because I didn't get that far. As God is my witness, I shall never rent another movie without reading more reviews!

This movie was a lot of things, funny was not one of them. It seems like the writer took all possible stereotypes, wrote individual story lines, and then shuffled them together not paying attention to what would actually work. This movie actually would have worked better as a drama. No part of it was even remotely funny, let ALONE hilarious (as one reviewer suggested). I would never categorize this movie as a comedy. The "jokes" (I didn't even notice any?) should have been deleted and they should have just done it as a heartfelt love story (which would have worked). Some stories took forever to get going and then played out in 2 seconds. Others were just incredibly unbelievable. I frequently found myself doing a face palm at how embarrassed I was for the people involved. I can't even say this was a good effort. It felt like no one actually read the script or watched it after editing to see how it all came together. I hope this was a first effort and her films have learned from this one's mistakes.

Nothing really spectacular and memorable about this comedy. The number of different characters that get thrown at the viewer once the movie starts is remarkable. Too bad that during the movie the character numbers just keep piling up and it gets quite confusing who's who and what the relationship dynamics of each character are. Some of the characters don't really get explored at all so, I guess, they are in the movie for comedic purposes, but they don't play that role very well, which in turn spoils the movie somehow. There are some okay jokes here and there, but most of them feel plain.

The same can be said about the acting - decent performances are mixed with poor ones and the result is nothing special.

My review is motivated by what appears to be some negative over analysis of a delightful little film. As they say, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

I found this film very easy to follow. Intended or not, this film has a decided message. We are all people, human beings with prejudices, frailties, strengths, weaknesses, wisdom, or not. Through it all, Doolin shows us we all have the ability to understand, if we want to, and the ability to change. Change our thinking, our perceptions, and how we choose to handle life's little curves.

To accomplish this, Doolin uses stereotypes. Images and ideologies we have all seen, witnessed or felt. We have quite a few somewhat colorful and interesting, if not fun characters in this film, covering a good part of the questions and attitudes we usually see in society. The conservative religious elitist, liberals, gay and lesbian, all juxtaposed against a canvas of a wedding shower, which unexpectedly reveals greater issues beneath the surface.

Doolin handles such deftly,and considering the issues discussed, same sex marriage & gay relationships,some rather heavy issues, she gets her point across with humor and a lightness which makes it easy to appreciate.

Doolin makes no preachy commentary of the subject matter;l She exposes the issue of gay relationships, sex and loving a person of the same sex for what it is. All of us want to feel close to another, and want to be loved. How it manifests, and comes to be, is only as it is. (and) as it is, is really no big deal. All the fuss, a lot to do about nothing.

Trish Doolin is a very talented writer/directer/actor. if you are secure enough in your own self, and don't mind watching a comedy with gay subject matter, you may find this film quite enjoyable.

My parting advice to other critics, Don't over think it. It's really pretty simple.

This movie tells an amusing if somewhat muddled story, and the acting really is pretty bad -- compared to the usual slick Hollywood stuff. But let's face it, lesbian-oriented films seem to range from low-mediocre to atrocious, so put in the context of the existing art, April's Shower starts to seem a lot better than low-end.

I don't think there was a single polished actor in the bunch. They all over-dramatized or used fakey facial expressions or just plain got things wrong at times.

There were so many relationship twists and flip-flop couplings/decouplings of lesbians and heteros and bisexuals alike that I found myself a bit confused at the end, but I did have fun watching all the mating dances unfold. Be prepared for some plot turns that seem precipitous; either the author left out bits of bridging text here and there or too many scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

If you want to watch this one, try a little experiment: Pretend you are at an amateur production of a play, perhaps put on by your local junior college. It does make the performances feel a lot more plausible.