Nonureva Really Surprised!

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

graciefoster123 The more times I saw the movie the less impressed I was. The ending is very unlikely; seeing as Catholic schools would have just covered that up. However the relationship is nicely represented. For filming in three weeks this movie is well made. I enjoy the story this film is telling, two women being attracted to one another. The way they kept building up the chemistry and desire was well thought out. The story was interesting enough that I didn't predict the end or get bored with with the film. Erin Kelly did a fabulous job and so did the actresses playing her room mates. Diana Gaidry was alright at the role but could have used more character development.

Robert J. Maxwell Annabelle (Erin Kelly) is a rebellious free spirit sent to a strict Catholic high school by her parents. Among her other unorthodoxies, she's a lesbian. So is her poetry teacher (Diane Gaidry) who is trying to live a normal life with a normal boyfriend with whom she sleeps, but she gets nothing out of the relationship.There are some admirable things about the film. For one thing, neither of the two principals is a hottie, which is perfectly fine. Kelly is attractive, as most high-school-age girls tend to be; Gaidry is quite beautiful at around the age of forty. But neither looks remotely like a sexual machine. Neither is Denise Richards bursting out of a tiny swim suit, or the collagenic Angelina Jolie. They both look rather average.The story and dialog are, if not sophisticated, at least not dumbed down for an audience of air heads. It's an adult picture. There are not only quotations from Rilke and Proust but the lines play a meaningful part in the plot.And there are a few neatly done directorial touches, by Katherine Brooks. Gaidry has been seeing this rather nice guy for whom she feels little. But after she has begun to succumb to Kelly's overtures, she distances herself from her boy friend. And when he drives her home after their last date, he kisses her as usual but she responds perfunctorily. Instead of acting shocked, the surprised guy (Markus Flanagan) leans back against the car door and stares at her silently, wearing a vague smile, while seconds of silence tick by. The temptation must have been there for Flanagan to immediately start waving his arms and carrying on like some animal in a zoo after that desultory kiss, but it doesn't happen. All men are not brutes.Kevin McCarthy is the sympathetic priest but he's marginal to the developments. Two characters in the story are devalued by the script. One of the girls squeals on Kelly and Gaidry when the two are having their first and only physical encounter. And Mother Immaculata (Ilene Graff) is stern and unforgiving. She's supposed to be tough -- always wearing a scowl and with an unbecoming do -- but she's a cream puff compared to the nuns I had to cope with in my youth. Whew.If there's a problem, and there is, it's that neither of the leads can act very well. Kelly is taciturn and unconvincing except when having a fit of pique. Gaidry is better at nuance, but she really has only two expressions: slightly concerned and profoundly worried.There have been good movies, and some very good, about lesbian affairs, latent or overt. "Madchen in Uniform" remains one of the best and most subtle. More recently, "Desert Hearts" captured the complexity of such affairs without resort to gossipy school girls. "Notes on a Scandal" was poignant because it so effectively projected Judi Dench's desperation at having grown matronly. "The Children's Hour" is more of a schematic diagram than a feature movie.

Phylle Foxwell I think that most lesbians have had big crushes on female teachers. Very few of us though are as bold as Annabelle Tillman. Annabelle, the rebellious daughter of a US senator, was kicked out of a couple of schools before winding up at a Catholic girls boarding school. She becomes enamored with her attractive literature teacher Simone Bradley, played by Diane Gaidry. Both Gaidry and Erin Kelly,who plays Annabelle, deliver very believable performances. There are some great characters in this film, Father Harris the elderly priest played by Kevin McCarthy is one of my favorites. Laura Breckenridge is wonderful as Colins, a student with an anxiety disorder that cuts herself. Ilene Graff does a good job as Mother Emaculata, the director of the school, and Simone's aunt. I love this film and have watched it many times. The music is great and I sometimes play it just to listen to the music.

paulispinel This week I've been watching movies about lesbian stories and I liked each one I saw, and well, Loving Anabelle wasn't the exception, but I didn't like it as much at the others. It's a shame to me to say that maybe the reason I didn't like this movie was for the age difference. I don't have nothing against that, and at the end I liked how their relationship was, but it was weird to me from the start. And I think that the coincidence that they both, Simone and Anabelle, had had another romance with a woman before was strange, but it was OK because at last they understood each other. But overall, I liked the movie, i recommend it and I don't think is a waste of time. I didn't like so much the end, I mean, what happened next?? maybe I can imagine or guess, but I would've loved to see what happened with their lives, whether it was a happy or sad end.Besides, it shows a real school-life, tell life of a student in love with a teacher, and even thought I've never been in a situation like that, I know people who has, and I guess there are plenty persons who have been through that.