Anatomy of a Love Seen

This movie has a great idea in that it is supposed to be about two young actresses who fall in love for real when they play as lovers in a movie.

But that is not what is advertised. Instead we are told that it is the lesbian love scene itself that actually turns them into lovers. It was why I was reluctant to go and watch. To make the most of the advertised sex scene the movie opens with the scene itself and it is on the cover and in the trailers. Yes, we are promised a hot spicy lesbian love scene that will turn two women into lovers. Two scenes even, for the movie is actually about a reshoot of the first scene. And the effect is more or less the same. You see, that is what lesbian sex does to girls. Perhaps even to straight girls? Parents protect your daughters!

What would be next is a guy who will tell them that a real guy(he himself) will turn them into straight girls again because all they need is some good straight hanky panky to make them see the error of their ways. It never hurts to have a good old straight shag to fix things.

The problem however isn't this misused promise of a lesbian sex scene, but the incredibly slow pace of the movie. You see, the two lovers had a falling out, but darn now they have to reshoot that particular scene! Drama ensues... very slowly. Very very slowly.

It could have been a great movie, but instead we get long slow scenes in which the crew is followed setting up for the scene where such things are discussed as why the wall is missing or that the movie needs to be less heavy. It was probably interesting for the movie crew to see themselves in action but I found it irrelevant for the story and boring to boot.

Even worse however is the bemoanings and recriminations of the two actresses. Like little spoiled brats they have to be talked to by the director all the time to get them to do the bleeding scene. But no, their interpersonal struggles cannot be set aside but have to be addressed and solved right there and then by the director turned relations councilor. Of course, none of the actresses ever thought of taking a friend or otherwise trusted person with them or deal with the thing in a professional or grownup manner. No, no no. We have to see this drama unfold.

If you like very slow drama that has people bemoaning their plight, this is the movie for you. If you instead had hoped to see a movie about a lesbian relation that develops with it's up and downs, as was promised, you might be disappointed by the result. It would have been great to allow people some insight and understanding of lesbians, but this isn't that movie. In fact it wouldn't have interested anyone if this love scene had been a straight one. Making a love scene lesbian does not make a movie less boring or better.

This movie is so powerful. If you are a person that has been abandoned by someone you loved, who you thought loved you, without explanation, this movie will have an affect on you. Maybe you are the person who did the abandoning. You can identify with one, if not both, of these women. Some have complained about it being slow or no plot. I will say, you must have some depth to you to enjoy this film. It has very quiet moments, but that is where the intensity lies. These quiet moments are where you are going to feel and remember your old wounds. I have watched this movie several times since the first time, and it sticks with me for hours afterwards. Not many movies these days that have that effect. The two lead actresses did such a good job with their roles. I cared so much about Mal & Zoe by the end. If you are able to watch a movie without aliens/disasters/high speed car crashes, please give this movie a chance. xoxo

What this film does have going for it is two very pretty female leads and a quite erotic love scene between them, which also both feature prominently on the cover. The film itself breezes through this in the first five minutes. Then there's a brief montage of relationship and the viewer gets dumped in the middle of *something* going on. What follows is a series of overacted confrontations between the girls in which they grimace and cry a lot and give the viewer extremely vague exposition. A little more context would have been nice, like who the characters are and why the viewer should care about them. All this is annoyingly intercut with shots of extras doing stuff, fragments of irrelevant dialogue - and bits of a subplot between two other characters that is completely redundant. The director (who also played the director in the film) seems to have self-importantly shoehorned herself into nearly every scene. These other bits then feel like mere padding, as if during pre-production it turned out that writing the real meat of the script, giving the characters context and some genuine conflict or tension, was really, really hard. I find that a shame because show business with its egocentric personas, its gossip and also prejudice should have provided a dramatic enough setting for an emotional story about a lesbian relationship between actresses. I've seen the film described as slow but I feel that word does not capture my feeling. There is slow and then there is drawn out. Room in Rome was slow but offered much more in terms of both eroticism and character focus. Mind you, making an 80 minute film feel drawn out is an achievement in itself. For a real relationship drama, lesbian or otherwise, you'll need to look elsewhere.

I have to say that I only watched this film because the film I intended to watch on Netflix had disappeared. and when I did start watching it, I came very close several times in the first 20 minutes to turning it off. But as it went on and I realised more what was happening it grew on me, and in the apparent messiness some very good acting and some very truthful situations emerged. It's a miniature, but a worthwhile one. It's not erotic, except maybe at the very end, but that is not the point; it's about feelings. The sub-plot of the relationship between the director and her assistant is perhaps more convincing than the main plot, and perhaps more interesting.

Earlier I read a review that basically warned viewers about this movie but since the Director was so kind as to personally message everyone who queried about the film on Youtube strands and the trailer was done so beautifully, I decided that it was worth the $5 and went ahead and watched it anyway. Now can I just say that this is not a 'typical' movie and if you are a plot based person who gets bored easy and needs the car chase or the lonely montage or any other Hollywood film tricks to fill your 90 minutes, you may not be prepared for this and may even have words as strong as the previous reviewer who claimed that it was slow and self indulgent. But if you can be open to seeing something very different and raw, it is really something unique and special. Realism to me often comes in a slightly art house package, with a slow narrative mimicking reality. You know. Those long look-out-of-the- window-of-a-train sequences or how the film sometimes gets taken over by silence. And somehow, even with a narrative, these films will so often lose me. However, this movie is clever in that it is absolute realism without the extended narrative, in fact, the whole film is set up within a short space of time, literally almost mimicking time itself which absolutely gripped me like I was living those moments with them. The four lead actresses were fantastic and the chemistry between Zoe and Mal was nothing short of Real. I can talk about how great the pace was or the shots but art isn't always meant to be picked apart by its roots. For me, seeing a film that is not dragged down by plot but puts all of its cards on letting a situation and a relationship run its course throughout a difficult day, a film thats core focus is to express just... love, is refreshing and honestly exciting. With this and Blue is The Warmest Colour... I am feeling pretty confident that particularly lesbian relationships are started to be represented well within the film industry. Despite that we were removed from so much of the context and history,I was so emotionally invested because it wasn't about exposition and it wasn't about knowing, it relied on feeling. That in-the-middle-of-a-complicated-break-up-and-now-I-don't-know-how- to-function feeling that leaves us completely vulnerable and if you've never had anything like that or never felt sick when you're around a person, like your body doesn't feel like its you anymore or you've never had a first fight or a last fight or a relationship ultimatum moment or you've never stopped yourself before you risk getting hurt, then maybe, just maybe you might be like meh, a film about love with no plot. Otherwise, this is a gem and you will not be sorry for putting money into this film. Commendation to the team!