Loving Annabelle

This is an excellent lesbian film. The performances are really good, though the storyline could have used a bit more enhancement. I felt that it began too quickly and ended too abruptly. It seemed as though the interest between the teacher and student was just suddenly thrust upon us without enough development. Then I felt that there was not enough time developing their relationship before it ended. Still, it was a very beautiful and enjoyable movie. The cinematography is gorgeous and the soundtrack is superb. I highly recommend this film if you enjoyed "Summer of Love" or "All Over Me", as it reminded me a lot of these films.

"Loving Annabelle" (2006), co-written and directed by Katherine Brooks, is an attractive film with attractive leads. Basically it's a love story between a student at a Catholic school and her female teacher.

The basic concept of the movie is forbidden love. In this case, the love is forbidden for two reasons--it's lesbian and it's between a student and a teacher. That's the basic plot, and everything else in the film revolves around that.

I just reviewed "Sevigne," a movie about a developing relationship between two women. That film was subtle and nuanced. In my opinion, "Loving Annabelle" is neither. It's fairly predictable from the opening scene. A young woman arrives at a Catholic boarding school under heavy escort. It's obvious that she's not happy to be there, and will defy school authority. Then we see her in class with Simone, a beautiful, intelligent woman teacher. The rest of the plot pretty well follows from that. A weak point is that Simone's boy friend, the third corner of the triangle, is obviously far below Simone's level in every respect--there's no real dramatic tension between her feelings for him and her feelings for Annabelle.

The leads are extremely attractive. (Erin Kelly as Annabelle looks like a young Jane Fonda.) Diane Gaidry as Simone looked right for the part and acted it well. Ms. Gaidry was gracious enough to come to the screening of the movie, which played at ImageOut, the Rochester Gay and Lesbian film festival

Finally, in Rochester, almost the entire audience consisted of lesbian couples. It's sad that heterosexuals in Rochester are not perceptive enough to realize that a film about a lesbian relationship can appeal to viewers of all sexual orientations.

Its hard to watch "Loving Annabelle" and not feel its emotional and heart-wrenching qualities. Diane Gaidry and Erin Kelly are extremely convincing as "Simone" and "Annabelle". Their love is pure and extremely delicate for it holds so much more than most people care to notice. Its more than a "teacher-student love affair", or a "lesbian love affair". Annabelle and Simone feel love's agonizing pull and love's agonizing defeat with so much emotion and understanding. Erin and Diane played their parts beautifully and it is evident from watching their chemistry on screen as well as off. A job well done to both of them.

I'll begin this review by saying I didn't dislike this film. It was well acted, and looked very very good for an independent film. I guess I just felt like I knew everything that was going to happen before it did. At the beginning of the movie, the scenes seemed very trite and underdeveloped; after a few lines of dialogue and a couple of cuts, we're abruptly taken away to the next part of the story. Because of this rushed feeling to the movie, I never got to know the supporting characters, who had plenty of potential for further development.

The one thing I find redeeming about this film is the tension that builds between the two leads. The filmmaker does a good job of teasing the audience time and time again, to the point where I just gave up any hope of them getting together. She successfully took the film to a point where she could take one of two routes: they end up together, or they never take that chance. The choice she makes works for the tone of the film, even if the ending is a tad abrupt.

All in all, the filmmaker definitely has talent, I just wish there was less ambiguity in the narrative and more character development.

The look of Loving Annabelle is very classic. The 35mm film looks glossy and the colors are crisp. The film LOOKS pretty. The story also has a classic 3-act structure and is very well-written. These traditional aspects are really interesting to note since the subject of the film is rather modern. The "unconventional" love story turns many notions on their heads: student-teacher sexual relations; the possible effects of a Catholic school upbringing or environment on an individual; and same-sex love, if anyone out there is still bigoted enough to take offense to that.

What I liked about the film was that it was character-driven, and not plot-driven. The emotional growth of the characters took center stage to the possibly sensational aspects. I felt carried along the storyline without any forced-ness or jumps in thought. The plot line was smooth, and had enough twists and turns to keep me from knowing what would happen next. I totally identified with the main characters and cared about them (individually) very deeply besides my interest in whether or not they would get together.

The look of the film, the quality of the story, and the TERRIFIC acting (both Annabelle and Simone are perfectly cast) give Loving Annabelle the depth and sheen of a much higher-budget film. (Though the emotional resonance of the story makes talking about budgets almost crass.) The music is also terrific. The soundtrack would be great to listen to as its own entity. This is the film that I've most enjoyed in a long time and have recommended it highly to anyone who will listen to me since I first saw it.