One of my all time favorites.

Beautiful, moving film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

When people describe a film, whether it's one they made themselves or they saw, and say it's 'exploring' a character doing something it can seen like a vague or nebulous way to talk about a film that usually should have a solid story or plot. Lianna is an excellent example though it an "exploration" of a woman who seeks out her own sexual desires despite (or perhaps because of) her marriage to a man and having young children. What could/would usually be a story, or as typical a one you might see here, is that the affair Lianna has with her female psychology professor would last the whole film leading up to a blow out, big argument. There isnt much room for her to be deceptive however; she tells her husband as soon as it happens, and the fall out really is the core conflict. And it's not as if Sayles has any easy-to-chart story points like they teach in hacky screenwriting classes: it's this feeling more than anything else that she is sometimes looked at as an 'other' and it only fully comes to light when she goes to a gay tavern and... There's really nothing that should be wrong about all this.In other words, Sayles's second film as director is this sometimes quiet, sometimes intensely felt and dramatic (the husband is a real SOB but fully believable, not in any over the top way, just a stuffy do-what-I-like prick), and has this character at the center who we have no idea what will happen with her. Frankly it's because she doesn't know, and this includes when her kids find out the truth and when (minor spoiler) due to no major fallout her original relationship with the professor doesnt work out. It's all naturally acted and presented, but Sayles knows that if he can keep his audience interested past it being an "issue" movie, that it's simply about this human being coming to terms and figuring out her life in difficult, adult ways, that's all he's got to do. If anything it has more of the flow of a novel - if I were told it was a book beforehand of understand - as everything feels and looks and the actors all have this closely done observation of how grown ups do and respond and process information. That the new love/professor is a psychology professor helps, but it's not used as a gimmick or something like that. A major leg up is that Linda Griffiths, an actor I wasnt aware of at all before this, does so much at times with only a little on the page (or maybe it is there and she gets it every step). She could play certain scenes in a more melodramatic way (once or twice she goes for it, when the script really calls for it), but a lot of the time it's intense in another way, like things could escalate but she is keeping it softer, more closely felt. If it has been made a few years earlier I coild have seen Diane Keaton or someone like that. Thankfully, shes a revelation here, as is the movie in general.Oh, and Sayles is a really good actor!

An insightful portrait done by the master of portraying real characters, John Sayles. This was a sensitive but unsentimental portrayal of a woman coming to terms with being a Lesbian, well before it was every the trend to portray gay and lesbian characters in a sensitive light. I really admie John Sayles' ability to understand characters that seem so far removed from himself.

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.

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.