Fear of Water (2014) was directed by Kate Lane. The basic premise isn't new--girl from the wrong side of the tracks meets girl from the right side of the tracks. However, the premise is carried out very well, and the acting is excellent.
Both Alexia (the rich girl, played by Lily Loveless) and Eleanor (the poor girl, played by Chloe Partridge) appear to be capable and caring. Each girl has her own problems--Alexia's mother is gone, and her grandmother dies on the day after she returns from school for summer vacation.
Eleanor has an out-of-work disabled father and the mother from hell. Eleanor is dealing pot, and apparently harder drugs as well.
Still, their friendship appears genuine, and you can't help wanting that relationship, and their lives, to succeed.
I found the ending of movie to be somewhat contrived. Also, you can tell that Kate Lane is a new director--she hasn't learned how to give us a sense of location. We move from the mean streets to the mansion, to the council flats to a beautiful idyllic lake to an abandoned--but immaculate--playground almost by magic. We viewers need some sense of how we got from A to B and back. She's a good director, and I'm sure she'll learn how to manage this.
This film will probably work a little better on a large screen, but it will be OK on DVD. We saw it at the Little Theatre as part of the laudable Rochester ImageOut LGBT Film Festival.
