Review of "Floored by Love"

I rented the film in part because of this positive review, and, wow, big mistake. I've watched a lot of bad lesbian movies (so many that I think the term "bad lesbian movie" is actually redundant), but this one takes the cake. Every. single. actor. is TERRIBLE, although I suppose there wasn't much they could do with the completely wooden and silly dialog they had to work with. The situations--Conservative parents come for a surprise visit! Gay child worried about acceptance from Chinese family! Gay teenager enjoys shopping!--are mostly the standard, stereotype-ridden fair, and the few that are new are completely unrealistic. For instance, the 14-year old teenager's parents suddenly just agree to let him move to a different country with his flaky, unsuccessful father when he says he wants to. Riiiiighhhtt. Oh, or how about the Chinese mother who asks her daughter's Japanese "roommate" if the rainbow flag is the flag of her nation?

And if that's not enough to induce an eye roll, how about the completely tiresome relationship between the two lesbians? Janet more or less demands that Cara not only come out to her traditional, conservative parents, but also to come out in the context of marrying Janet, which of course she is obliged to do by the fact that they've been together for three whole years. She then pressures Cara so badly and in so many different ways that, by the end of the film, my partner and I were surprised that she didn't get pissed at Cara for not tying a vial of sperm onto the "will you marry me?" balloon (You don't want to have kids with me?! But you said you loved me and were committed to US!).

And that's not even mentioning the incredibly stilted and predictable attempts to link the two stories, which don't fit well together anyway.

In short, there's really no reason to see this film unless you are absolutely desperate to see a portrayal of gay people on screen. Even then, rent something else if you can. We certainly need more gay films, but I'm sick of people thinking that making a film with gay characters is enough to attract an audience. Quality is important too.

While I wouldn't say it was good, it's not terrible either. The actors are lacklustre, and the film relies too much on groan-worthy stereotypes, but it does an admirable job exploring the themes of family and alternative families, multiculturalism and minority groups.

The desire for acceptance, both by the lesbian couple from their parents, and the stepfather from the stepson, emphasizes that well, as much as children want to be recognized by their parents, sometimes the parents feel the same way.

Personally, I like the reference to food. Janet expresses her love for Cara by cooking malaysian food, and Cara ends up learning to make japanese food. They're overcoming their cultural differences and accepting each other's culture by preparing the food they both grew up on. The other family has stir-fry tofu as bland and boring, while crepes are "in". Tofu becomes a representation of the solid, boring but dependable stepfather, while the biological father's crepes are fun, delicious, but not for everyday consumption.

I won't dispute the eye-rolling, stereotypical and overdone representations in the above post, but there are some cultural significances that are easily overlooked. As a chinese myself, and considering many of my friends in college don't know what the rainbow flag stands for, the chinese mother's reaction is not entirely unbelievable. Although I'm more amused by the repeated references to tofu, which in many east asian cultures is a euphemism for lesbian sex.

Again, the film itself wasn't done well, but the themes are worth thinking about. I wouldn't recommend watching it unless there isn't anything else to watch, and certainly it's not worth watching more than once, but it is one of the few lesbian-themed that have a focus on ethinic and cultural differences.

Although I liked the idea behind the film, the script wasn't worked out well, many camera angles ruined the scenes and the acting was just horrible. I must say Sky and Klippenstein were rather good at times and really stuck out but boy..

I personally can not recommend this film to anyone. I'm sorry but I really, really wouldn't want to watch it again. Very little funny moments and even less that came over to be sincere and genuine. The movie only lasted like 50 minutes but those were a pretty long 50 minutes.

 * * * * * * * * * *

MUSICPLAYER
Music is like therapy,
only cheaper