On the surface, the new independent film A Family Affair is a lesbian love story, but it's also a movie about extremes.

The film kicks off with Rachel (played by Helen Lesnick, who also wrote and directed the film) talking directly into the camera (a style that I find distracting but others enjoy) on her wedding day, as she sets the scene for the story of how she got there. Rachel is a New Yorker who relocates to Southern California after another bad breakup with her ex, Reggie (played by Michele Greene), with whom she's had an on-and-off relationship for years. Rachel's PFLAG-happy mother (played by Arlene Golonka) sets her up on a series of bad dates with lesbian stereotypes (the goth chick, the P.E. teacher, the co-dependent wreck, etc.), until Rachel unexpectedly hits it off with one of them, Christine (played by Erica Shaffer).

Christine is the California ying to Rachel's East Coast yang: Rachel is dark and moody, while Christine is sunny and cheerful; Rachel is Jewish, Christine is Protestant, Christine is athletic, Rachel is not, etc. But the two women click despite their differences, begin dating, and move in together after several months. Rachel is happy in her relationship with Christine but a little uncomfortable at the accelerated rate at which Christine is welcomed by her family (which besides Rachel's parents include her brother and his wife, played by Suzanne Westenhoefer) and becomes a de facto daughter-in-law, even converting to Judaism.

Rachel and Christine eventually decide to get married, but around the same time Reggie blows into town in search of Rachel, to woo her back with her own marriage proposal. Now Rachel must decide between marrying the woman she loves now, or the woman she used to love.

One of the reasons Lesnick wrote A Family Affair is because she perceived there to be a "lack of films with gay characters that aren’t about 'coming out' or where 'being gay' isn’t the focus of the film," and this is clearly reflected in the film, since the characters' sexual orientation is rarely an "issue" in A Family Affair the way it is in most films.

To the contrary, Rachel and Erica's families are overwhelmingly supportive of her being a lesbian. While this is refreshing, the across-the-board tolerance and acceptance communicated by the heterosexual characters (and the super-positive way they communicate it) is a bit unrealistic, and at times the film can feel like a commercial for PFLAG--but the film is so good-natured that this is easily forgiven.

Rachel is fairly negative and sarcastic throughout the film and spends much of her time complaining, which sometimes makes it hard to understand why two women would be fighting to be in a relationship with her. The fact that the film skips straight from Rachel and Christine's first date to a year later doesn't help this, since it means the viewers don't see much of the happy honeymoon phase.

Rachel's personality begins to make more sense towards the end of the film, however, when (in one of Lesnick's best scenes) it becomes clear that Rachel's sarcasm is largely a defense mechanism triggered by her sister's death many years ago.

Christine, on the other hand, seems overly cheerful most of the time, but is a very likeable character because Shaffer imbues her with just the right amount of backbone: Christine might appear to be a push-over, but that she is clearly made of stronger stuff becomes evident when Reggie tries to take her on, and when Christine believes Rachel is being unfaithful to her.

Reggie has a little too much backbone, and is clearly used to getting what she wants. Greene portrays Reggie with a mix of arrogance and self-confidance that is also a little over-the-top at times, but there are other moments of subtlety and softness that succeed in making Reggie sympathetic despite the fact that she is pretty much the definition of smooth operator.

Although I would have been happier with a little more subtlety, overall A Family Affair is a fun movie. As Lesnick points out, there aren't enough movies that explore lesbian life post-coming out, and A Family Affair is a welcome addition to the canon. Although this film never entirely makes you believe in its lesbianism-is-no-big-deal world, there are moments in the film that you forget that lesbian relationships are anything other than normal--and that alone is worth the ticket price.

Update: A Family Affair is now available on DVD.