Then there are the handful of movies in which the lesbian relationship triumphs, including Desert Hearts (1986), Bound (1996), When Night is Falling (1995), Show Me Love (1998) and Being John Malcovich (1999). But these are almost always independent films, and, with a few exceptions, rarely include well-known actors.

The upcoming film Gray Matters (2004) is a an indie film full of well-known actors dealing with a similar scenario--a woman and her brother fall for the same woman--and it isn't yet clear which category this film will fall into.

Written and directed by Sue Kramer, Gray Matters features Heather Graham (Austin Powers 2, From Hell, Boogie Nights) as Gray, and James Marsden (X-Men, X2, and Ally McBeal) as her brother, while Saffron Burrows (Frida, Timecode, Deep Blue Sea, Circle of Friends), plays their love interest.

In addition to the three main characters, Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom, Carrie, Coal Miner's Daughter) plays Gray's therapist, Alan Cumming (X2, Anniversary Party, Spy Kids) co-stars as a cab driver who becomes Gray's confidant, and Jane Krakowski (Ally McBeal, Dance With Me, Marci X) rounds out the cast as Gray's colleague and best friend.

The cast has some experience playing gay characters. Graham played a social-climbing bisexual character Bowfinger (1999) and a lesbian in Kiss & Tell (2000), and Burrows played a bisexual woman in Mike Figgis' experimental film Timecode (2000). Burrows is also openly bisexual in real life, as is Alan Cumming (who has also played sexually ambiguous characters on-screen).

It's not clear yet whether Graham's character is a lesbian or bisexual, or whether Burrows's character is even gay at all (lesbians falling for straight women are hardly rare in cinema). Since the film has Gray's name in the title, and since all of the supporting cast are for characters connected to Gray rather than to her brother or her love interest, the story appears to be told from Gray's perspective--which doesn't necessarily mean she will get the girl in the end, but it at least increases the odds that she won't be killed off ala The Fox or Lost & Delirious.

The current trend in cinema is towards portraying lesbianism in a more positive light (in films like Under the Tuscan Sun and the upcoming films Eulogy and D.E.B.S.), but there are still plenty of recent examples otherwise: Lost and Delirious, Aimee and Jaguar, Mulholland Drive, and the upcoming lesbian-serial-killer film Monster, for example.

But while recent portrayals of lesbians on the big screen may be a mix of positive and negative, bisexual women almost never fare well on film, at least not romantically; according to recent films like The Hours, Frida, and Gigli, bisexual women are mentally unstable and always choose men over women.

Bisexual women are getting more attention in film than they used to, and are portrayed more sympathetically these days, but they rarely end up living happily ever after.

Whether Graham's and Burrows' characters are lesbian or bisexual, a happy-ever-after lesbian relationship between them would be a nice contrast to the more tragic or unhappy endings to lesbian relationships we've seen on-screen lately. The very fact that the film attracted so many big-name stars seems like a positive sign--but then, The Hours did too, and that wasn't exactly a happy ending.

Given Burrows' and Cumming's outspoken support for gay rights, however, it seems unlikely they would sign on to a film that gives short shrift to lesbian relationships. So even if Gray doesn't get the girl in the end, perhaps she will triumph in some other way. It's not ideal, but it's a start.

December 2005 Update: Saffron Burrows has been replaced by Bridget Moynahan as the love interest of Gray and her brother, and Jane Krokowski and James Marsden have also been replaced by Molly Shannon and Tom Cavenaugh respectively. The movie is currently filming in Vancouver, B.C., and while there's no release date set yet, it appears to be slated for 2006.