User reviews

Lost and Delirious is an awkward, but strikingly earnest film. The story deals with a love affair between two girls at an exclusive prep school as witnessed by their roommate. Mischa Barton plays Mary, the new girl at school who quickly realizes that the two girls she shares a room with are a good deal more than just friends. Paulie (Perabo) is an outspoken girl with a troubled past, and Tori is a privileged girl from a more traditional family.

The first time Mary catches Paulie and Tori kissing on a rooftop in the middle of the night, she assumes they are only practicing for future encounters with boys. Soon enough, the two are sharing a bed in the nude, and the sounds they are making through the night leave little doubt as to what is going on. Mary accepts their relationship, and the three seem on their way to being good friends. Things take a turn for the worst when Tori's younger sister walks in the room one morning and catches Tori in the nude with Paulie. It's absolutely astonishing to see how fast Tori pushes Paulie away from that moment on. Tori explains that her parents would basically disown her if they found out. She spreads the word around campus that Paulie is actually a sexual predator who crawls in bed with her from time to time.

Tori ends up being a rather unlikeable character as the film progresses. She immediately hooks up with a boy from a nearby school, and openly flaunts the fact that Paulie means nothing to her. We know this isn't true from the start, however. Notice the agony on her face after she walks away from explaining to her little sister how there's nothing between herself and Paulie. She even goes as far as telling Paulie that she'll never love anyone else as much. All this after dumping and ridiculing her! Is this supposed to make Paulie feel better about being dumped? Anyway, enough about Tori...

Piper Perabo steals the show as Paulie. Her character would best be described as dangerously romantic and obsessive. She loves Tori more than could easily be explained here. Her constant public displays of devotion leave nothing to the imagination about how she feels. At one point, she even challenges Tori's new boyfriend to a duel in the nearby woods. There is nothing anyone can do to console Paulie or curb her obsession. At one point, even Mary is taken under her spell until loving memories of her late mother seem to bring her back to reality. Paulie has nothing like that to fall back on. Once she sees that she will never be with Tori, it can only end tragically for her. Piper Perabo needs to be in better films like this one. No more Cheaper by the Dozens or Coyote Uglys, please! This is not your typical film about teen love to say the least. Although this film has a few flaws, you will not soon forget it after seeing it. To see such devotion for one person from another is rare, even in movies. There are sex scenes, and they are handled honestly and tastefully. The film will no doubt remind all of its viewers about their most painful crushes, regardless of whom they may have been for. There are a few minor side plots that may not seem to fit with the central theme of this film, but overall you will likely find it a rewarding experience. And you have been warned: this film will probably depress you.

8 of 10 stars.

The Hound

What could be more pure and genuine than the serendipity of an honest page from a young girl's diary, spotted with the teardrops she wept as she wrote? The diary belongs to 14 year old Mary Bedford (Mary Brave) as she writes about the heart breaking emotional trauma she suffers during her first year at boarding school. Lost And Delirious is a movie about the purest form of committed love, the kind that transcends all boundaries and causes those committed to devote every fiber of their being, heart and soul, to their loved one. There is no turning back or "getting over" this kind of love; once broken the heart can never mend. Most people will never experience this kind of pure love and, even if the opportunity were there, would never take such a chance with their emotions. If you have ever loved another person so intensely that you felt your life would be over if the relationship ended, you will identify with the character, Paulie Oster, and this movie may break your heart.

L&D is not a lesbian movie about girls being naughty and experimenting at boarding school. If you're not the sensitive type and expect to be inflamed with lust this movie would be wasted on you. Get yourself a pound of fried pork skins, a six-pack of $1.49 beer on sale at the local convenience store, and rent Bimbos From Planet Lesbos instead.

There are few words to describe a movie such as "Lost and Delirious." The most conspicuous being "beautiful." No matter what your views may be on homosexuality, there isn't a person out there who can truly say that they did not feel the tremendous pain that Paulie felt when Tori walked out of her life. Every camera angle, tape speed, background, audio effects...everything...in this movie is absolutely perfect. I've never seen anything like it. The only other picture I can remember of this same artistic caliber would be John Duigan's 1998 film "Lawn Dogs." However, even it does not leave you with the emotional sting that "Lost and Delirious" does. The bottom line is, do NOT rule out this film because of the basis of it's storyline. It is not all about the sexual relations & lesbian activity. It is very much a deep look into the human spirit.

Mary "Mouse" Bedford (Mischa Barton) is new to the all girls boarding school. She is befriended by roommates popular Victoria "Tori" Moller (Jessica Paré) and rebellious Pauline "Paulie" Oster (Piper Perabo). She discovers that they are actually in a sexual relationship. Paulie finds an injured hawk and nurses it back to health. When Tori's sister Allison (Emily VanCamp) and her friends find Paulie and Tori naked together, Tori decides to blame it all on Paulie. Paulie is ostracized.

It's greatest asset and worst liability is it's Canadianess. It could have been exploitative but it's not. It's lyrical, dipped in poetry, and coated in adolescent obsession. The ethereal music is more effective than one would expect. The flip side of being Canadian is it's budget. You could see its lower production value through the many prism; the weak boyfriend actor, small post-production problems, and the general lack of polish. Piper Perabo deserves some kind of acting award. She certainly proved she is better than what she showed in Coyote Ugly. Lea Pool really screws up the sword fight. At least kill the wimpy boyfriend. Otherwise, she gives this movie a great moody adolescent feel. Jessica Pare is also terrific in this and Mischa Barton does well being mousy.

Mischa Barton, Piper Perabo and Jessica Pare share the screen in this powerful, but lacking coming-of-age film. Mary (Barton) is a lonely and depressed girl who has lost her mother and is now being shipped off to boarding school. She moves in with the nice and beautiful Tori (Pare), and the pleasant, but also somewhat odd Paulie (Perabo). To her surprise, Mary gradually finds out that not only are Paulie and Tori involved in a lesbian relationship, but a very fragile one, indeed. Strong, realistic performances from everyone in the cast help get the film going (and it is pretty good up until the first turning point), but it becomes seriously (and deliriously) confused after a while. Perabo's performance is good for the initial section of the film, until everything goes to hell, which just about sums up what happens to the girls' characters and the plot.

A romance and a breakup between two girls develop into a mutiny at an all-girl boarding school--this sounds extremely familiar, but the outcome of Lost and Delirious is not, thanks to the fact that the film is neither the filmmaker Lea Pool's semi-autobiography nor one of her earlier works. As a veteran filmmaker, Pool puts a distance between the characters and herself; it produces a tone that is neither too emotional nor too objective. The contemporary touch is made subtly but noticeably, as the story takes place at a school where the girls play soccer and the teachers accept students' openly discussing love and sex in a classroom. The incredible acting of two leads, Piper Perabo and Jessica Paré, makes the girls believable. They look similar with each other; the combined castings may be called a mistake as it could confuse the viewers at least in the beginning.

The worst part about this film is that it did not have to be so terrible.

They had a nice budget, though so do many films; they made it look slick and pretty, and best of all they had the 21st century lesbian-savvy audiences who would embrace a lesbian positive film... and yet the writer and director went out of their way to lift every single redone film bit about lesbian torment and confusion at boarding schools, (you know, the place all lesbian love lives and dies).

This is a theme that has been done again and again and AGAIN in film, but something that viewers-if one uses this voting forum as a clue- cannot seem to get enough of.

Every element of this story was so over the top, excessively phony and contrived that it was painful to sit through. The lead characters say it all: the crazy, abandoned, genius, rebel lesbian tough girl (well, they took a super pretty femme like Piper Perabo and tried to rough her up, but it didn't stick much) seduces pretty rich girl who is destined to betray her.

Watching them every step of the way is character 3, a dopey, well-meaning, wide-eyed, good girl observer. I say 'every step' because she shares her every thought with the audience via the stiffest, most inane monologues.

Her lines seem to have been WRITTEN by a fifteen year old, though they are trying oh so, so hard to sound like how a fifteen year old would really, um, you know, well... talk. "Hearing them (make love) with their noises was um, you know, like, well... okay!" she says about her 2 wanton roommates, who roll around in the bed next to her.

Later she asks Graham Greene- the accomplished native American actor who is completely wasted in a roll as a gardener (!) "Is it wrong to care what people think?"

Sorry, but is she a teenager, or is she age 7?

Granted, Piper Perabo (as Polly the tortured dyke) & others do an okay job for the horrible lines they are forced to utter. Perabo has a nice energy level and is obviously very comfortable in front of a camera. She would do well in a decent project, so this is in no way a criticism of the acting.

But this story is SHAMELESS in perpetuating every single stereotype about lesbians all rolled into one character. They couldn't stop with her (Polly) being an angry, crazy-passionate, secret genius who finished math problems for the speechless teacher. Oh but that's after she argues with the teacher who dares accuse her of "gabbing".

"That's a word THEY (males) use against US (women)!" she says, stomping out of the classroom.

Is this ALL the writer could come up with? Or maybe we should ask: Why stop there?

Poole and co. went on and made Polly a poetic dark child who communicates with wild hawks by screaming their name in the woods.

Cue the slow motion, sci-fi, Xena atmosphere!

Then we have her writing to her birth mother... (most lesbians are love-starved orphans, in case you were in the dark).

Then we have two teachers (one uptight, one a zany type with loose neck ties) who hover around all of the action (the school looks awfully big for just 2 teachers)... and give dark child/ seductress/bird girl tense looks. Hmmmm. I wonder if something well, you know... um, FUNNY is happening between these TWO TEACHERS??????

There is simply no excuse for something this poorly done. Heartbreak happens, but surely the writer and director know that lesbians exist in much more sophisticated times than this schlock.

I cannot reveal the ending out of respect to those who force themselves to sit through til the end, but if you are not laughing, I can only guess you are crying. And not for the right reason. And I don't mean the wimpy make out scenes.

I watched this to see Piper Perabo in something other than "Coyote Ugly." Here, she plays a very different character, a lesbian at an all girls school who is in love with her roommate. The whole story is told as seen through the eyes of a third roommate, played by Mischa Barton.

The acting is top drawer, and the story is engaging. I had an idea of how it might end up but I wasn't sure right up until the last few minutes. Nowadays, you can usually predict how movies will end about 10 minutes after they start, so it was refreshing to be kept on edge until the end. That being said, I'm downgrading this one a little because I didn't care for the ending they chose. I could have envisionied a couple of alternate endings that would have made this a stronger film.

I thought 'Lost and Delirious' would be about some spoilt teenage girls hooking up on sex, drugs and rock and roll. But, to my surprise, it was something else. It's about three school roommates. Two of them engage in a 'forbidden' relationship while the other confronts her own issues and narrates the story. 'Lost and Delirious' isn't an easy film to watch. I don't want to hand out any spoiler but I'll say that it truly sticks to the title and parts of it are disturbing. I did not like how the film was treated because had it not been for the music and Piper Perabo's acting, it would have felt like a TV movie. At times, the pace is painfully slow and some scenes seem pointless. Piper Perabo steals the show with her terrific portrayal of the emotionally tortured and abandoned Paulie. Mischa Barton looks uncomfortable (and she needs to eat) but does okay in a few scenes. The soundtrack is quite unusual. There is something captivating about it. I also liked the sequences with Paulie and the raptor that symbolized liberty. It is not an easy film to watch but tells an interesting story of rejected love.

'Lost and Delirious' is a nice movie that feels a little familiar. That it does feel that way is kind of strange since I haven't seen a lot of movies that deal with this subject. The movie is about two girls that love each other and share the same room on a boarding school. One of the girls, Paulie (Piper Perabo), is willing to pull that through no matter what, but the other, named Victoria (Jessica Paré), is afraid of what others might say and think. When they are found in bed together Victoria wants to end things and Paulie can't accept that. All this is seen through the eyes of Mary (Mischa Barton), who is their new roommate.

The reason why things feel familiar sometimes is probably because certain scenes are familiar and therefore predictable. At one moment Victoria has sex with a guy named Jake (Luke Kirby) and of course Paulie (and Mary) sees her. There is also a scene where Paulie faces Victoria with their problem in front of Victoria's father. You feel that these things will happen in a movie like this. Still, Piper Perabo's performance does add something to these familiar things. She is slowly losing it and makes sure we believe her.

What she also does is changing 'Lost and Delirious' slowly into a thriller but when we are almost there it goes back to the tragic love story again. It is kind of interesting to see. When Paulie would go really mad, instead of just really heartbroken, this could have been a thriller with too many clichés. Instead it is a human tragedy with some clichés that could have gone terribly wrong in the end. Fortunately the movie takes the right turn, or actually no turn at all, which is the way it should go.

Cute movie. Sweet characters, some funny, some romantic. I thought the acting was good. Character development was good as well. The girls were not underage when nudity was shown. They are 44 and 40 now in 2021... movie released in 2001. So there is no underage nudity. I don't know what that other person was talking about.

I might say that, deep inside, "Lost and Delirious" is a chick-flick, but to those girls (and boys, let's say, because girls are not the only who like chick-flicks) who can look further and deeply. It's a smart, intense and beautiful alternative to "Down To You" or "She's All That". And It's also a gay-themed movie that can be enjoyable to anyone.

The movie focus in Piper Perabo's character, Paulie, which has a homosexual relationship with her best friend, Tory, played by Jessica Paré. Once Tory has no courage to admit to her parents she's gay, and decides to end up the relationship, Paulie freaks out. Everything is seen by the eyes of Mary (Mischa Barton).

Piper Perabo gives the performance of her career. And, if we consider she was in vapid movies like "Slap Her, She's French" and "Coyote Ugly", you'll be very surprised (or even shocked) with the way she make her Paulie a character so intense. Barton and Paré may stand behind, but are also great. It's a movie so well-crafted and beautiful that it's kind of funny the way director Lea Pool manages to make a movie that grows every time in beauty and intensity without losing the focus in real life, real feelings. It's a brilliant movie, a must-see.

Les talk about the film `Lost & Delirious.' The movie is based on the world of teenage girls in a parochial school, and their lesbian sexual & romantic tendencies. Piper Perabo stars as the overzealous & rebellious lesbian who's tongue get her in trouble in more ways than one. The film's symbolism of free-floating raptors & animalistic nicknames does give it an intellect perspective. What was also intelligent to include was the hot lesbian love scenes. The problem I had with the movie is that at times it moved way too slow and kept me lost from its primary delirious focus. However, `Lost & Delirious' is one film that you should find at your local video store on one of those crazy nights. *** Average

Sometimes I forget what kind of person I am because I interact with so many dull, selfish, and fearful people. This movie is about following your beliefs and living what you feel. It is about recognizing what you "live for". going after it with all that you are, and righteously being destroyed if you do not succeed. I became more and more absorbed in the film as it progressed and was deeply moved by its climax. I think the acting was superb and the dialog terrific. I also was very affected by the accompanying music. The situational and dialectical drama strongly complimented each other and I felt the angst, disbelief, and compassion rise within.

I rented this movie because i wanted to see Jessica Pare who is gorgeous but I hate "chick" movies and reading that its all about some girls at some boarding school,i thought i would have to sit and listen to some endless girl talk.So i was ready for a lot fast forward.Boy was i wrong!!!!!This is a great movie!!!Forget about the lesbian issue.Perabo is so GREAT in this movie that after five minutes you forget its about two girls.Its all about Intense OVER the edge IMPOSSIBLE LOVE and also the desperate NEED of it. The acting all around is great.But Perabo really shines here and i cant believe she was not nominated for this.Maybe the symbolism with the bird in the end is a little overdone,but overall this movie leaves you emotionaly shaken and i cant think of many movies that do this these days.Excellent movie.

Young lesbians looking for films about themselves deserve so much better than this movie. So does anyone else who watches it.

The first problem is that the dialogue is unrealistic. These characters launch into what they think are beautiful poetic speeches that no real person would be able to make up off the top of their heads. The scene where the three main characters are reciting letters to their mothers is particularly bad; the first has written hers ahead of time but the other two spontaneously create drivel that some scriptwriter must think is particularly deep and intriguing.

The second problem is that we're never really shown what's so, so great about the love between Tori and Paulie that Paulie will go through the lengths she does for it. I'm sure fans of this movie will claim that "it's true love!", but the film leaves us to infer this instead of making us truly believe it.

There are various notes that ring emotionally false. One that stands out is Mary's reaction to her two roommates having sex in their room while she's there; she appears to have no problem with it. I can just hear the thought process of the writer of the original novel (or of the screenwriter, if this wasn't in the original): "Mary has to be absolutely okay with everything, or else she'll look homophobic." You find me a high school girl who's completely comfortable with two people of either gender having sex in the room while she's there, I'll show you a high school girl who's either a voyeur or is trying too hard to seem "cool".

The actors try hard to sell this story, but the script is so bad that it can't be done. As the film progresses Paulie begins to look more and more like a head case, and the awkward Shakespearean quotes get worse. Don't waste your time watching this. 2/10

I only decided to see this film simply because I liked Piper Perabo in 'Coyote Ugly', an enjoyable but 'lightweight' film. I watched 'Lost and Delirious' for the first time last evening and I was totally blown away by Piper's performance which surprised me, taking into account the fact that the film didn't exactly get rave reviews. It was a far deeper film than I expected it to be and I will need to watch it several times to appreciate its full impact. (I never manage to fully appreciate a film first time round!)The clever parallels drawn between Paulie's character and the bird of prey's plight are cleverly handled, although I thought it was made a little too obvious when she began to refer to herself as 'the raptor'. I felt this was unnecessary; the viewer should have been left to make that link for him or herself. The increasing tension which draws the viewer inexorably towards the climax of the film is almost unbearable. I felt myself starting to dread the end of the film, fearing its almost inevitable end. IMHO this is a masterful piece of movie-making. Miss it and miss out!

Well, that's what this should have been called, anyway. Mainly, due the the ridiculous, ham-fisted use of what can barely be called symbolism by the director. It would not have surprised me to find out that this was A) One of Lea Pool's earliest efforts, and B) at least semi-autobiographical. Turns out A is wrong, although I don;t know about B. I will bet she attended boarding school, though, and had a rather terrible same-sex relationship of SOME kind. This is the message that was beat down our throats by this film, and the short film which preceded it, the name of which I no longer recall.

At any rate, the character development was clumsy (Who introduces herself by saying what her name means? Nobody.) the symbols were about as subtle as an all-glass elevator full of teen-age girls losing a cable and plummeting eighty stories. All over a loudspeaker. Honestly, the cry of a falcon when Perabo declared she was a raptor and leapt off the table? That was ridiculous to the point of parody. And it was only one of far too many symbols meant to show even the dumbest of viewers what her point was. And that was that she had a crappy childhood and feels the need to make movies about it, ala Vincent Gallo, instead of seeing a therapist, ala all of us who get on with our lives. There was nothing tender, nothing sweet, and nothing moving about this film. It was poorly enacted trash, and the actors could not save the Brett Ratneresque over the top "HEY THIS IS MY POINT IN THIS MOVIE" use of film techniques, writing, and acting. Sorry, but it was terrible.