Lost and Delirious
January. 21,2001 RAfter starting at an upmarket boarding school, a teenage girl forms close friendships with her two older roommates. However, when she discovers that her new friends are lovers she finds herself caught in a complicated situation.
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Reviews
Excellent but underrated film
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
This is most definitely a love story. It shows how being gay or lesbian as such a young age can be very difficult especially when you are in love . The acting is fantastic by all of the actors, and the main three girls in it make the film with such amazing chemistry. To be honest I wouldn't have labeled Mischa Barton as a really good actress, but after watching this I have changed my mind, her acting is fantastic especially for someone, who was then, only 15 years old. It could have been her character in the OC that I wasn't keen on, rather than her acting skills. Piper Perabo was also fantastic. I have only ever seen her in coyote ugly, and thought she played a fantastic part in that also. The characters in these two films are very diverse and different, which proves she has good acting skills. It took me a while to work out what film I had seen her in before. Jessica Pare (plays Tory) is also very good in this movie. The connection between her and Piper Perabo character Paulie seemed so real. I have not seen her in any other films as of yet. Even though the film is fantastic, it is also very sad. It highlights how someone can be so influenced my family and friends that they dismiss true love. There is a quote in the film said by Piper Perabo as Paulie that really stuck with me. Mary, who is played by Mischa Barton says "Tory is not a lesbian , so you need to just get over her ok?". Paulie (Piper parado) then says "Lesbian? What are you talking about?" Mary then says "Well you are a girl in love with another girl aren't you?". Paulie then replies "No I'm Paulie in love with Tory, don't you remember? I need to get back what is mine". This, I think, is a very true quote suggesting that there is not a label on their love. They are not lesbians, they are two people in love and that is it. The ending for me was very sad and I wasn't expecting it. Its shows how painful love can be, especially when you know that love is being sacrificed because of opinions of others, and what they expect of you, rather than what you want.
I am really not sure who this film's target audience is supposed to be.If you take out the bare flesh parts, I would have put this as one of those made-for-TV movies that would be shown on one of those small film channels whose number is way, way down on the PVR. It is Mills and Boon romance that deals with "issues" with a bit of nakedness thrown in for good measure.However if it IS aimed at the teenage boy market, there are going to be a lot of very disappointed young men out there. Whilst all three of the girls are clearly ideally attractive, young, fit people with just-washed hair and white straight teeth, a quick search on the internet is going to be far more fruitful for any voyeurs. The nakedness is not really needed and indeed probably would have been a better film had it not been there.My biggest gripe however is that this has all been done before. The coming- of-age through discovery of one's sexuality and or first love was handled far better more than 25 years earlier in Bilitis and as for the using an animal to compensate for lack of human closeness has been done a thousand times from Kes to Lassie and Flipper! They even throw a bit of "Seize The Day" in there!All very nicely shot but the plot and dialogue is often so clichéd that you are left feeling that someone has just slapped you in the face with a fish to get the point across. REPEATEDLY. Even the ending is predictable.Overall I really felt this was a bit of a waste of both mine and the actor's time.
I came across this film whilst channel hoping and so wasn't expecting very much; however, I was soon enthralled by it. The subject matter could have easily been exploited and the filmed turned into something seedy, but instead it is a sensitive portrayal of the difficulties of overcoming loss and rejection. The fact that the two main protagonists are female is incidental to the story of love and heartbreak and tragedy that unfolds. It is very well acted by all the cast, but Piper Perabo and Jackie Burroughs deserve particular mention. The ending is poignant and heart-rending, one can not failed to be moved by it. This film is everything that "Blue is the Warmest Colour" tries and fails to be.
I suspect there are going to be two different reactions to "Lost and Delirious." Some people (most likely teenaged girls) will look past the many faults to find a theme that really resonates within themselves. Others won't be able to move beyond those many problems and will find the film shallow and manipulative. I'm afraid I belong to the latter group.Problem one: Manipulative. At one point in the movie there is a minute long close-up of one of the characters (Pauline) crying while a sad song plays in the background. Five seconds wouldn't do I guess. That is about as manipulative as movie making gets. The movie isn't trying to tell you a story; it is trying to make you cry.Problem two: Really bad plot holes. The movie is set at a girls boarding school and follows the lesbian affair of two of the students there. When the couple breaks up, one of the girls (again Pauline) rather quickly goes off the deep end. She starts exhibiting increasingly erratic and violent behavior. Nobody at the school does anything! The staff just stands around wringing their hands and thinking "Oh dear." Worst of all, as Pauline begins to stalk her former partner, nobody even thinks that it might be a good idea to move the girls out of the same dorm room! "Stalking" and "Violent" yet nobody seems to think separating the two girls might be a prudent idea! What is so ridiculous is that these were very easy plot holes to fix. Why not a 30 second scene of the staff moving Pauline to a different dorm room? No, no. Far better to have a minute long scene of Pauline crying.I suppose if I were younger and had not already seen so many better made movies with a similar theme I might have had a different reaction to "Lost and Delirious." Hmmmm. Let me think. Yes, if I were a teenager I might have given the movie 3 stars instead of only 2.