In 2003, lesbian characters were mostly absent from the movies found at your local theaters, and the few lesbians that were on the big screen collectively painted a portrait of lesbianism that was, well...less than flattering. Far, far less.

Out of the more than 500 films released in theaters in 2003, only eight included lesbian characters: four studio films (Gigli, Under the Tuscan Sun, Mona Lisa Smile, and Monster), and four theatrically-released independent films (Prey for Rock and Roll, Gasoline, Gaudi Afternoon, and Blue Gate Crossing).

But the bigger problem in 2003 wasn't the quantity of lesbian characters, it was the quality. While the indie films in 2003 varied in their portrayals of lesbians, the studio films overall made lesbianism look like a descent into the seventh circle of hell, as we saw lesbians seduced by men (Gigli), raped (Monster), fired (Mona Lisa Smile), hospitalized from a suicide attempt (Gigli), and killed (Monster)--when they weren't out kidnapping (Gigli) or killing (Monster) other people. A few of the characters in the studio films, like Amanda in Mona Lisa Smile, were sympathetic and even virtuous--but unhappy, nonetheless.

The sole exception to this trend was Diane Lane's best friend Patti (Sandra Oh) in Under the Tuscan Sun, whose biggest problem was being dumped by her girlfriend (from which she recovered nicely in Tuscany). As the only cinematic lesbian character in 2003 who didn't come to a bad end--and one of the few Asian-American lesbians ever in a studio film--Patti is worth noting, but she was a minor character in a film that received mixed critical reviews and performed only moderately at the box office. Tuscan Sun did better than Gigli, certainly, but attracted fewer viewers than Mona Lisa Smile, and will likely be far surpassed at the box office by Monster.

You could say 2003 was a bad year for lesbians on film, but that would imply representation in previous years was better--and it wasn't. There weren't any lesbians on the big screen in 2002, for example, besides the depressing lesbian characters played by Meryl Streep and Allison Janney in The Hours; but here were plenty of depressing and unrealistic cinematic representations of bisexual women in 2002. Does that count?

There were few lesbian characters in studio films in 2001, either. Or in 2000. Or in 1999. Or...you get the picture.

It's not that these are all bad films--some, in fact, are very good--and there's nothing inherently wrong with depressing lesbian characters on film.

Except when they are the only lesbian characters you find at your neighborhood theater.

This isn't a challenge unique to lesbians, of course: most minority groups in the U.S. have struggled against inaccurate, stereotypical, and negative representations on film. African-Americans suffered through years of this, for example; it wasn't until African-American producers, directors and writers began getting the budgets and power to create and distribute their own films that black audiences were able to begin to see a variety of black characters on the big screen: good and bad, happy and unhappy, successful and unsuccessful.

But while there are more lesbian writers, directors, and producers in Hollywood than ever before, there aren't yet enough to reverse the addiction to depressing lesbian characters that seems so inscribed in Hollywood's DNA.

There is light on the horizon, however, in the form of a handful of upcoming films that include more upbeat lesbian characters and storylines--films that don't make you want to kill yourself afterwards, for a change.

From the satirical, kick-ass teenagers in the upcoming comedy-action film D.E.B.S., to the lesbian couple played by Kelly Preston and Famke Janssen in the dysfunctional family comedy Eulogy, to the lesbian relationships in Head in the Clouds and Gray Matters, it looks like Hollywood may finally be discovering the lighter side of lesbians and lesbian relationships. There is even a lesbian mother-to-be in this month's critically-panned comedy My Baby's Daddy, and a slew of lesbians planned in the Spike Lee comedy She Hate Me.

Not all of these films are comedies, but even the dramas don't seem to have the lesbian characters slated for criminal behavior or unbearable suffering.

It helps that there are more openly lesbian directors like Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S.) and Cheryl Dunye (My Baby's Daddy), openly lesbian studio execs like Nina Jacobson (the President of Buena Vista Pictures, which made Under the Tuscan Sun), and organizations like POWER UP that help gay women get ahead in Hollywood. If Showtime's new television series The L Word is successful, that may also give studio execs the justification they need to greenlight more movie projects that include different kinds of lesbian characters.

And perhaps this time next year I'll be able to write a very different kind of annual review, one that celebrates 2004 as "The Year of the Happy Lesbian in Film," or, if that's too ambitious, "The Year of the Struggling But Well-Adjusted Lesbian."

Heck, I'd even settle simply for "The Year of the Lesbian Who Isn't a Victim or a Criminal." It ain't sexy, but it's an improvement.