A Perfect Ending

Generally when I go to see films at a festival my expectations are set pretty low. Most are fair to middlin' and many just don't cut the mustard. Occasionally, however, I catch a film that not only captures my mind while I'm watching it but that lives on and continues to unfold in my mind for days after. Such was my experience with A Perfect Ending. For starters, while I first saw the film during the Frameline (LGBT) festival in San Francisco, it became abundantly clear not long into the film that the fact the love story element was between two women was incidental to the bigger picture themes of identity, self-awareness, and the ever-important journey to discover and embrace true passion in life.

At first blush, A Perfect Ending is the story of Rebecca (Barbara Niven) a woman living in a loveless marriage, dissatisfied with her life and holding a deep secret that not even her closest friends know. She reveals this secret and the deep questions that it carries to her friends who then suggest a rather unorthodox path to finding answers - a high priced call girl named Paris (Jessica Clark).

It's a Nicole Conn film, so you know there's a love story. I saw it at an LGBT festival so I knew there was a lesbian angle. What I found with A Perfect Ending was a story that had so much more depth and breadth that I left the theater thinking ... a lot.

Nicole Conn masterfully weaves this complex story, delicately dipping into an array of subplots and parallel story lines. That she weaves a complex story is one thing, that she does so leveraging some unique and rather fascinating storytelling mechanisms makes the film that much more interesting to me.

Beyond the graceful storytelling structure there are the superb performances from a very talented cast.

Several great character turns give wonderful flavor to the story. Cathy DeBuono delivers an amusingly intense performance; Mary Wells' comedic timing and perfectly timed expressions bring laughter at several key moments and then there's the superb Morgan Fairchild whose very appearance on the screen resulted in applause. John Heard delivers a great performance as the detached, boozy husband with a dark secret of his own.

Finally there are the two magnificent lead actresses. Newcomer Jessica Clark, has thus far in her career mostly been a model. You can be sure that this will change - fast. The character of Paris that she delivers has such nuance, such grace, such power and such intensity it's hard to believe that this stunning young woman had never before done a full-length feature film.

Barbara Niven is someone you have, no doubt, seen act before. You have never seen her like this. To watch the evolution of Niven's character of Rebecca is to see a woman become completely dismantled. From her clothing and hairstyle to the way she walks and even holds her facial expressions - at the outset Rebecca is wound so tightly that one might expect she would snap at any time. Instead, we see her soften, unravel and blossom into a magnificent, luminous and powerful woman.

Any woman should see this film and then ask herself - have you found your passion? Are you living a life you feel worth living and if not, why?

This is just one of the most irritatingly pretentious movies I've ever seen. If you're an upper-class white person with no real problems and you can only relate to human sexuality, though, maybe this movie will appeal to you.

Barbara Niven plays a rich white woman who is sexually repressed and stuck in an unhappy second marriage with a cartoonishly evil business owner. Her one trait is that she's uptight and her husband's one trait is that he's evil. No one in this movie gets to have more than one trait.

She confesses to her friends - two happily-married women - that she's never had an orgasm. They recommend an all- female brothel for her to contact so that she can finally know what it means to enjoy herself in bed. She ends up with Paris, played by Jessica Park, who is admittedly gorgeous but is once again limited to one trait - in this case, being sexy. For the entirety of the film she speaks slowly and in a low whisper.

Her character is key to some of the film's most desperate attempts to be artsy. We get shots of her in a fetal position on a white void because the movie wants to show that she's damaged and has personal trauma. Rather than letting this come out through Clark's performance it's shoved down the audience's throat with this obnoxious imagery repeatedly, with different degrees of blatant symbolism each time. We also get embarrassing soap opera-like flashbacks to Paris' memories of her old lover, done with soft-focused and slowed footage to make them extra-hard to watch. We don't get a sense of their relationship, really; we're just being told that it was good because look, they're smiling! They're laughing! Everything's fuzzy and slow-motion so it's gotta be nice, right?

The embarrassing film school stuff is just par for the course in this movie, though. There's jump cuts all throughout the movie and they feel almost random. It's like the director saw one of Jean-Luc Goddard's movies and figured that good, artsy movies MUST have jump cuts because his films had them. They really make parts of this movie hard to watch because it just feels like the editing's a mess.

And of course there's all of the melodrama. Everything important in this movie is underscored with horrible, generic piano and string synths telling you what you're supposed to be feeling. It gets really silly when one character orgasms and there's synth flutes and choir voices hitting high notes to hammer the point home. It's just another part of the movie that feels really forced and cartoonish. It makes the sex scenes embarrassing to watch.

The romantic chemistry between Niven and Clark is non-existent but we're told at one point that they might be falling in love. 90% of their on-screen interactions are purely sexual and yet with nearly zero character development we're supposed to find their relationship meaningful. We don't really get the chance to see these two characters outside of the bedroom and when they talk, it's just endless streams of clichés about how much they enjoy each other. It feels painfully shallow. Clark's character is sexy and she's shown to have artistic talent throughout the film but she doesn't get to have a personality outside of her sexuality. We don't get a sense of what her art means to her - it's just there to make her a more attractive character. Of course, though, the film sees Niven's life changed by her relationship with Clark.

The "manic pixie dream girl" is a trope in films where one bubbly, exciting girl enters a protagonist's life and solves the protagonist's problems by being such a likable, attractive person. "A Perfect Ending" merely takes that cliché and applies it to the life of a rich white woman rather than a man. It says that everything wrong with your life can be solved by a hot, sexually-available woman. But the worst thing about it is that it has the audacity to pretend that it's something more, with all of its terrible film student editing and pretentious imagery.

There's much better films out there about bisexual and lesbian relationships. Blue Is The Warmest Color is a much better portrayal of a woman's sexual awakening with another woman and it's made by someone with a far superior grasp of film making. Watch that instead of this trite soap opera.

This is not a "must see" film. It is also not a "piece of crap". Obviously, this film is somewhat polarizing to produce the disparate reviews it has received here. And just as obviously, some of the people who watched this film have an anti-gay bias that makes one wonder "why the hell were they watching this film?"

There are aspects of the film that I liked. And many I did not. I do not want to be too dismissive of "A Perfect Ending" because I feel the writer/director invested a lot of care in this film and tried to produce a beautiful product.

Many of the things I found off-putting were intentional. For example, the editing that was sometimes choppy. The music that, in places, was designed to create an air of the mysterious and sacred. These are artistic choices that sometimes did not work for me. Often, they took me outside the film, especially since the pace was slow. The pace itself could have been brisker in parts.

Also, Jessica Clark (who plays the escort Paris) spoke with such a slow, deliberate pace it was distracting. It reminds me of Nichole Kidman in "Eyes Wide Shut", but Ms. Kidman's character was under the influence when she spoke that way.

Lastly, I found the sexual politics of the film annoying. Often they are inserted where it does not serve the story.

All in all, this is an average film by a filmmaker who could probably produce a much better product.

Imagine you had a less than perfect sex life (go on, try)… in fact imagine you were living a life that felt completely devoid of passion. Now imagine you had some concerned friends who wanted to find a way to help – and did so by setting you up with a totally gorgeous, sexy, intelligent, young… hooker.

What feelings might it provoke in you? Fear, horror, excitement, anxiety, shame, desire… would it give you a buzz – and would you go through with it? It's an extraordinary and intriguing question.. and it's the central theme in the new movie from writer and Director Nicole Conn. Has that piqued your interest….? It certainly did mine… and I can guarantee when you watch, it's a question that's going to get you all worked up.

Rebecca is a middle aged, wealthy, but utterly repressed and depressed housewife (played outstandingly by actress Barbara Niven), who is dedicated to her coldly bombastic husband (the excellent John Heard) and her three now grown children. And she has a secret. Or maybe more than one. During a frank discussion with two close friends, she reveals something that they are horrified to hear about her sex life – and they are determined to help her resolve. They perceive that Rebecca's dilemma may be as a result of her straight and straightened relationship with her husband, so they decide to engage the personal services of a high class prostitute, reasoning that another female "is so much more familiar with the manual" and will be able to offer her some… release...

Filled with trepidation but at the same time compelled, Rebecca agrees and turns up at the appointed time in a luxury hotel room to meet her… date. And so we are introduced to the delectable and sultry Paris (played superbly by British actress and model Jessica Clark in her first feature) who knocks on the door at the appointed time to meet her new customer. But though Paris would seem to have the looks and charm to melt even the frostiest of "clients", she hasn't reckoned with the more than just tight lipped, Rebecca.

As the two dance around each other, their stories are revealed, told with humour and pathos, with honesty and compassion. A Perfect Ending is multi-layered and addresses significant and pervasive issues that seriously affect the lives of millions of women – it manages to be both hugely entertaining and thought provoking at the same time. And it's HOT. The leads have fantastic chemistry and the sex scenes, which are intimately revealing, require a level of brave vulnerability that most of us could never even consider, but which are an essential element in showcasing the beauty of imperfection, the poignant antithesis of the movie's title.

Aside from the magnificently elegant performances of Niven and Clark, there are also some superb cameo roles, particularly from Morgan Fairchild as the tough and edgily funny Madam – with a peculiar obsession with Barbie dolls (the ones formed in plastic ) that she dresses up to resemble the characters of her "girls". Oh and the older, hardened hooker played with such wonderfully bitter but proud sarcasm by Rebecca Staab, who can't resist biting back when Rebecca rejects her with a judgemental driven tongue lashing… and then there's the funny, funny, funny British actress Mary Wells, who plays one of Rebecca's lesbian friends (we should all have one) with the Hollywood Madam in her contact list.

It's a story of many twists and turns that will surprise you as the plot unfolds – and it so cleverly explores, both metaphorically and in starkly frank big screen physical presence, the issues that so unnecessarily blight our lives and often prevent us from fulfilling our potential and finding the pleasure that all of us deserve. I was privileged to watch the world premier of this movie at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco along with an audience of over 1400 whose appreciation was loudly and enthusiastically expressed throughout the film. If their – and my – reaction is anything to go by, it will make you laugh out loud, it might make you weep – and it will almost certainly make you think about it well after the movie itself has perfectly ended.

You can catch it at a number of festivals across the States, including LA, Philadelphia, Tampa and Atlantic City in the next month, for more details of which, please visit the Soul Kiss Films website or check out their face-book page. You can also check out the Wolfe website and book mark it for news of the DVD release dates.

You really should do so, I couldn't recommend it more highly.

First off let me start by saying that I am not a writer, so please forgive my poor attempt at a review. As I patiently sat waiting for the screening of A Perfect Ending, I thought to myself, this is going to be a great movie. I did not expect to see a movie that would awaken all of my emotions and touch my soul. Nicole Conn takes you on an emotional journey that makes you laugh, cry and want to jump up applaud and scream YES!!!! Barbara Niven and Jessica Clark were perfectly cast for this movie. Their chemistry on camera is off the charts, blond and beautiful and dark and exotic. Nicole Conn and Marina Rice-Bader hit the nail on the head when they picked these two women for their lead roles. This film is a must see for both women and men, so if you have a chance to see it at a festival near you please attend and let your soul be nourished.