Movies

Review of “Elena Undone”

Elena Undone opens with a hazy, slow motion shot of two women walking towards each other. A voiceover dreamily states “In love, one and one are … one. Seldom do we get to experience the art in love.” It goes on to reference Emily Bronte and the scene reveals that we’ve actually been listening to a church sermon (a not-so-subtle transition to a stained glass window is our first hint).

From here, we meet Elena (Necar Zadegan), a beautiful, soft-spoken woman. She’s married to the preacher (Barry, played by Gary Weeks), and they’re trying for another child, a subject that Mr. Preacher seems much more keen on than Elena. She’s accosted by a cartoonish gaggle of churchgoers for not attending an anti-gay marriage protest, and she seeks comfort in the arms of Tyler (Sam Harris), a sort of love guru who makes films about “soulemetry” and stages events to help people find their soulmates. Yes, really. Peyton, (Traci Dinwiddie) our other lovely lead, is a lesbian novelist who has just lost her mother. Her quirky friend, Wave (Mary Wells) comforts her with bottles of wine and an arm-twisting trip to the love guru, where she sees Elena for the second time (their first meeting being at an adoption orientation — both are looking to add a baby to their lives). They immediately hit it off and have a lovely, sparkling chemistry from the get go. Sitting down to drinks on a candlelit porch, Peyton comes out to Elena. Immediately (and, realistically), Elena goes overboard trying to show her support, insisting that she’s comfortable with her new friend and that she voted “the right way” on proposition 8. It’s one of the best scenes in the film — candid, funny, and slightly awkward, it feels very “real”.

Almost inevitably, Peyton and Elena start hanging out — under the pretenses of working together professionally, as a writer and photographer. They have meetings, go on picnics (with a smirking Tyler accompaning them), drink wine and talk about love. All the while, the sexual tension builds and builds as our clueless heroines smile and giggle through their scenes. In one such sequence, Elena offers to do a little photo shoot for Peyton’s next book. They flirt — timidly at first. Then a heavy bass line winds its way into the soundtrack, and it’s obvious to both of them that there’s a real attraction here. Understandably, this freaks Elena out a bit, but not enough to prevent her from seeing her would-be lover.

During the in-between, each woman consults with her corner crew — Elena asks her teenage son Nash (Connor Kramme) and his girlfriend Tori (Sabrina Fuster) what the kids think about lesbians. This being 2010, even the preacher’s kid thinks it’s all just fine, which speaks volumes for the character of Gen-Y kids everywhere. Peyton seeks the advice of Wave and wrestles with her own demons, including a huge fear of attachment.

Just when things begin to hit a high note, we find ourselves back in church, with Barry going on about the “lost” and “deviant” gays. Elena squirms while her smarmy husband goes on — and all of us (Elena, Nash, Torrie and of course, the audience) just wish he would stop. Nash has a wonderful moment in which he berates his dad for being an awful bigot, making everyone long for more movie teens like him.

Soon, all the build up to the infamous “longest lesbian screen kiss” hits a major payoff, and things heat up between them. There is romance, there is longing, and there is major, five-alarm drama as their forbidden love blossoms. Predictably, Elena’s hyper-intense affair is difficult to keep secret from Barry the Bore — and young Nash nearly has a breakdown when he finds out about his mom’s dalliances. Peyton has it even worse, stuck with bad flashbacks to her childhood. Her mom tells her, “When you love, expect disappointment.”  

Intercut throughout the film are little “talking heads” interviews with Tyler’s various couples interviews, along with doses of his love philosophy. Pairings of every description — straight, gay, black, white, across races, religions and creeds — tell their stories to the guru. It’s all well and good, but it also pulls focus from our main couple.

As the film edges towards its final third, plot points start hitting thick and fast — some of which come out of the blue. Without spoiling anything, suffice it to say that the mean church lady (Erin Carufel) deserves a place on the all-star “lesbian film villains that need to be retired” list.

With strong acting and a believable romance, the film should be a dramatic treat. Unfortunately, there are several superfluous ingredients that threaten to ruin the picture.

The bizarre – and sometimes just plain bad – music fouls the mood in so many of Elena’s scenes, to the point where even the most poignant (or the hottest) sequences become laughable. Recalling everything from the awful Cymbalta commercials with the off-key flute to bands that are trying way too hard to emulate Melissa Etheridge, the film’s soundtrack really takes away from the seriousness of the plot.

Even the greatest music in the world can’t solve the occasionally spotty writing. Some scenes are just tone-deaf — the church lady is practically a walking cartoon in an otherwise realistic drama, and, like so many queer films, the actual content taking place within the church is incredibly heavy-handed. Far worse, however, are Peyton’s “love letters” to Elena. Peyton is supposed to be a successful writer, so one would think she’d be able to craft a bit of prose that wasn’t eye-rolling and cliché-tossing, but alas, that’s not the case here.

The acting is quite good, with both Zadegan and Dinwiddie turning in fantastic, nuanced performances — easily outshining the sometimes-iffy dialogue. Their scenes together sparkle and shine with chemistry and life, and even the mundane details (little touches, longing looks, etc.) are played just right. Kramme is also wonderful as Nash — the most realistic (and likeable) teenage boy to appear in a lesbian film since the adventurous younger brother in Better Than Chocolate.

The end result is a mixed bag. The core romance is fantastic and enormously compelling. The rest of the film feels like window dressing, which wouldn’t be a problem if so much of it didn’t feel poor or tacked-on. A “director’s cut” with different music and a complete focus on the two leads would be a real winner.

For more info on the film, including upcoming screenings, check out the official website or the Elena Undone Facebook page.

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