Brightlyme i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

westpenn49 That I was reminded of friends and their struggles, follies and foibles in watching this film is perhaps its highest praise. Sayles has succeeded in creating a real world peopled by real characters who act appropriately to the world around them, and at the same time tells a story about love and friendship that is transcendent. (What is a spoiler for a film like this? if you don't want to know what happens don't go further. It will not kill you or even harm your appreciation if you do, this is just not that kind of movie.) Lianna is married to a narcissistic college professor who dated her when she was a student. She falls for yet another professor. This one not as narcissistic and yet still flawed. Lianna's second professor is not accident she is the kind of person in authority that Lianna falls for. That this new professor has a conscience and I think means well for Lianna is a step forward, but first Lianna has a lot to learn about love and the effects of the rashness that sometimes comes with it.In her zeal to declare her love to the world, she rips that world apart and must spend the rest of the movie putting it back together. It is how she works with the betrayal and lack of support - plus help from strangers and friends alike - that pulls this movie out of exploitation and into drama.Sayles wrote a killer script, but he had a fantastic medium for his story in Linda Griffiths. She is so totally in touch with the character, the joys, the doubts and the worries, she shines. the other actors shine as well. Ms. Hallaren perhaps telegraphs her intentions, but no more so than some real people. Sayles is quite mercurial in this lecher/best friend role, but watch out for best friend Sandy played by Jo Henderson, wise and foolish and oh so pivotal.How friendships work is the real essence of the movie. Coming out is a vehicle for that exploration. The reactions here of various friends again ring true, you know these people, they work.Many people have commented on the setting, some finding it dreary. It is dreary, dreary the way the world is sometimes dreary. It is a ordinary place where people go through the extraordinary effort called life. Lianna is ultimately brave, though not necessarily the bravest character in the story for we all must deal with the effects of someone else's coming out. It isn't about who you sleep with, but it is how you deal with the person, how do we deal with news that doesn't really change who a person is, but does change how we see them. Lianna has lessons for all of us in this department.

tisra60611 The previous review did a great job in outlining the movie.One additional comment: This movie joints "Desert Hearts" and "If these walls could talk 2" in the pantheon of movies with the best romantic scenes between women.

bj_lucky John Sayles' ability to get you acquainted with his characters shines again in this study of a wife and mother who is coming to terms with her sexuality. Unlike the tawdry stories that focus solely on the sexual aspect of lesbian relationships, Sayles explores and reveals the complexity of discovering homosexual orientation - what it means to Lianna as her sexuality emerges from repression and what it means to her and others that she chooses to live truthfully with it.There are some very rare vignettes in this film that bely what it is like to discover the attractiveness of women for the first time. Sayles does such a masterful job at portraying this process of discovery - it is joyful, playful, and exciting. These scenes remind me of Truffaut's "The Man Who Loved Women" (also badly remade in the USA, starring Burt Reynolds), but they seem to have a more natural depth and feel. Sayles' movies are typically populated with real characters, not posing movie stars. This film is true Sayles...so much is at stake for Lianna, and you are drawn into the aspects and dimensions of her life, the complexities and facets of the human sexual nature and of life in general, and what it means to come to terms with being gay.

Doctor_Bombay When John Sayles makes a film, it's usually because he has a very good reason. A man who's made his life in film averting the Hollywood approach, Sayles stories are densely layered character dramas, unencumbered with camera tricks, special effects, or deception.The idea that Lianna (Linda Griffiths) needs a change of life in and of itself is not surprising. As a young college student, she had succumbed to the advances of one of her professors, then quit school to marry him. Now, twelve years and two children later she finds her life mundane, and loveless. She needs a change.A John Sayles film is a personal experience. He leads us down a road deluged with emotion, conflict and only some spattering of resolve. The rest he leaves for us. Sometimes we have to fill in the blanks to even the most difficult questions posed. And there's nothing wrong with that.