Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Well-acted, sometimes touching, sometimes shocking, story of a young English woman's coming of age and coming to terms with her lesbianism.

Her homophobic parents oppress her unmercifully, but she makes some friends who help her thru her crises to become a strong person. Definitely worth a look!

This made-for-television gem is made all the more poignant by the untimely death of Charlotte Coleman (Jess)in 2001. Ms. Coleman provides a touching and heart felt performance. The cult-like nature of her upbringing along with her strength in the face of such almost fanatical religiosity shows the value of forbearance in the face of such adversity. The entire cast provide solid and almost chillingly real acting within the storyline. Jess is the epitome of forgiveness and understanding given the predicament she finds herself in. This program is well worth a look if only for the thought provoking nature of the subject matter. This film received several awards and stands the test of time. In a way the production was ahead of its time with its frank assessment of Jess's personality. You can't runaway from your self.

Magnificently crafted film involving a young adopted girl's coming of age, under the authority of her priggish and religiously fanatical mother. At times, moving, stark and horrifying. It also portrays wonderful strength in the face of adversity, and the extraordinary power of being able to forgive. The acting is first rate, all the way around, and the end truly left me wishing that a sequel had been on tap.

I read the book, and loved it, having to give it back to the library before the Easter long- weekend left me little to do, so after some searching (albeit mainly on YouTube) found this adaptation.

This adaptation was written by Winterson herself, so I expected it to be good, and it was. The acting was tremendous and it stayed quite faithful to the book, as you would expect. Some have accused this adaptation over being over-dramatic and over-exaggerated , particularly with the portrayal of the church and the character of Jeanette's (who in the adaptation is now called Jessica) mother, and to an extent it is, but I feel that this was how it was written in the book and so is fair enough.

Where it fails, however, is that it clearly bears the scars of the transition from page to screen. Mainly through how the cutaway fairy-tales that, whilst about different characters, are significant and relevant in their themes to the main story, are cut out. This was particularly sad for me as I was eager to see how this would be done. The most likely explanation is that this would cut down the adaptation to a happy three-parter, so could this be understandable?

Because the filmmakers obviously tried to make a close adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel, as an avid Winterson fan, I cannot help comparing the film with the book. It would be extremely challenging to preserve Winterson's unique, postmodern literary quality in the adapted film.

In the original novel, Winterson objectively examines coming-of-age experiences of an orphan who is adopted to evangelist parents and finds herself a lesbian. The objectivity remains in the film to some extent; a lot of dramatic happenings are quietly described and never get emotional. However, the nature of the film media inevitably forces the audience to identify themselves with protagonist Jess. The analytical aspect of reading Winterson is lost, and if compared, the film just follows the plotline more plainly than the novel does.

Aside from Winterson, the film is a decently executed prototypical British film, on the tradition of British New Wave and Channel 4 productions, and worth watching.