Lost and Delirious

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Lost and Delirious

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Lost and Delirious

Mischa Barton, Piper Perabo, Graham Greene, Jackie BurroughsJessica Paré, Mimi Kuzyk

A newcomer to a posh girls boarding school discovers that her two senior roommates are lovers.

Id: 10897557

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Lost and Delirious Recent Reviews
  • LitelBluHli
    June 11, 2009
    LitelBluHli
    I saw this on television years ago and have seen it a couple more times after that. It has some how stayed with me as I thought it wasn't your typical teen movie, it was much more dark and dramatic. The acting by the young girls were pretty good. There's also girl on girl action ...( read more)in here if you're into that.
  • EarthlyAlien
    December 3, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Paulie: "Lesbian? Lesbian? Are you fucking kidding me, you think I'm a LESBIAN?
    Mouse: You're a girl in love with a girl, aren't you?
    Paulie: No! I'm PAULIE in love with TORI. Remember? And Tori, she is, she IS in love with me because she is mine and I am hers an...( read more)d neither of us are LESBIANS!"

    Photobucket

    There are, these days, a few kinds of films that I just can't approach without some feeling of dread. They could just be American remakes, pretentious indie love stories, or anything from Joel Schumacher, Steven Soderbergh or John Waters (all pantsless emperors in their own minds). One little and hubris-filled genre is the "coming of age" film. It took me years of hard living to dim my own memories of my own passage through the gauntlet of the teen years. Why the hell would I book a sepia-toned sentimental journey back with some hack still brooding over not getting a date to the prom?

    At that hormonally charged age, every issue you face seems to be of the exact same epic importance. By the time you reach 18 and maybe go away to college, none of it seems to have really meant shit. I don't even like being around teenagers now. I just feel like hitting them in the face. When you see them in a group of any size, their stupidity only seems to multiply, particularly when they have to deal with anything even remotely serious. What could possibly make this kind of thing go down easier? The easiest, most macho answer to that question would be "some hot teenage girl-on-girl action doesn't hurt." It's not like I disagree... if you know what I mean, but Lost and Delirious has so much more going underneath its skin that it has the ability to get to even the most hormonal, dumb, horny teenage boy you can think of.

    Director Léa Pool (a renowned filmmaker in Canada, but completely unknown around here) and screenwriter Judith Thompson don't shy away from that little element in this adaptation of Susan Swan's novel, "The Wives of Bath." Set in a Canadian girls' boarding school, our introduction to this world coincides with that of new arrival Mary (Mischa Barton). Dumped there by her dad and hated new stepmother, the intelligent but meek girl more often answers to the nickname "Mouse." Her real education comes courtesy of her two new roommates, both hellbent on loosening her up. The popular Tori (Jessica Paré) is well-developed both intellectually and, uh, physically. The cute, eccentric Paulie (Piper Perabo) is by far the biggest risk-taker and pleasure-seeker around; possibly the closest thing in school to a "bad" girl. What Paulie actually takes the most pleasure in turns out to be Tori. As Mary soon witnesses, her roommates have advanced well beyond close to becoming (clandestinely) intimate. Paulie deeply loves Tori as totally as a teenage girl can. Tori reciprocates, for now. Mary, to her credit, addresses the situation only with acceptance and support for what are now her two best friends.

    There's one scene that comes at this point that points the way toward the troubled paths each girl will take. Sitting around their room, Paulie asks each of them what they would put in a letter to their respective mothers. Mary, whose mother is dead, is concerned with her feelings of loneliness and need for closure. Paulie, who was given up for adoption by her much sought birth-mother, wants to tell her she harbours no ill will and only desires some kind of personal connection and reconciliation. Tori, unfortunately, lives in fear of crossing her cold, ultra-conservative parents. Uh-oh. Maybe you can see where this is going.

    Early one morning, Tori's prissy little sister barges in with her friends only to find big sis and Paulie still asleep, mostly naked and wrapped around each other. Fearing ostracism from both classmates and family, Tori backpedals as far from Paulie as possible. Quickly pegged as some kind of obsessive, unbalanced lesbian, the dual rejection by both Tori and her birth mother push poor Paulie to the point that she really starts to live up to that image. Feeling a bit betrayed by her own father, Mary is the one person to stick by her jilted friend. Her primary reward for helping Paulie is to have the bitchy rumour police to come after her as well. It all gets really ugly. Sink or swim time. Tossed into the deep end, each girl better learn how to paddle fast or somebody is likely to die.

    Lost and Delirious' biggest quality is something that tons of filmmakers often forget: it feels honest, most of the time anyway. "Lesbian coming-of-age" flicks are often excruciating because the storytellers are too wrapped up in expressing a positive tale of sexual awakening and pseudo-feminism instead of showing the utter crap-fest of confusion and uncertainty that the majority of the human race seems to experience. That's definitely not a problem here.

    The situation of these girls is familiar. The subjects are treated gently - almost too gently - but the relationship is a passionate one. Pool treats the girls with respect and the film flourishes in a naïve curiosity. One of the most beautiful things Lost and Delirious does is the way it examines the complexity and changeability of a friendship/relationship. Pool efficaciously shows how the luster of the friendship fades, even deteriorates, first, through the break-up of the girls, and then through the audience as we speculate about Pauline's negative and wild behaviour. To manipulate characters labelled as good or bad seems something easily enough controlled, but generally it is something that is set and established from start to end, only increasing as the film progresses. Yet Pool puts the girls on a similar trajectory during the start and begins developing in that direction, only to split them apart and have us question both of their actions - favouring one over the other - only to sort of "recall" that judgement to better assess it on your own. It's one of the most enviable qualities this offers.

    There's no gratuitous sex or nudity between the girls, but there are a couple of tender, sweet scenes that they share. It doesn't matter if it's in the still of the night in a silhouette, or a well-lit scene where they're fooling around, but it's tasteful and very erotic. I'll bet any number of guys went to see the wet dream of Coyote Ugly one year before this in hopes of catching some kind of nudity on behalf of the salacious and seductive girls casted. Good has a tendency to come to those who wait, and generally in forms more unexpected and surpassing of previous expectation. Since I saw Piper Perabo in that awful Steve Martin film Cheaper by the Dozen she's always had an undeniable charm and attractiveness that I liked. Her apropos choice of nudity in this film, and under the conditions that it is used seem quite appropriate. In relation to the sex and nudity, young Québécois Paré additionally handles it calmly and believably; the more voluptuous of the two, she shares a strange likeliness to Natalie Portman in looks and other occasional mannerisms such as her crying. The anachronism of these Natalie-isms is a welcome familiarity that automatically puts Paré into a more respectable and favourable class.

    Where the film falters most is with Mischa Barton's character Mary, who supposedly is in danger of slipping into reckless emotional turmoil herself for reasons that never seem to fully materialize. I'm not certain that the film could be done without her, but her issues are definitely not where our focus lands. I tend to be wary of films or TV shows that quote extensively from Shakespeare, as it seems a short cut trick designed to confer weight to a subject by dropping in the words and ruminations of a more clever author. It works here, I think, but it teeters on being too much at times. The other... weakness? Issue? I don't know exactly, but the other thing that needles me is the sense that the story gives us no hope, no answers or anything we can take and learn. It's just so altogether god-damn sad that we wish there was some sort of redemption possible, but there comes a point before the end when we realize that this isn't going to be the case. And maybe it just wasn't supposed to.

    There's this bit in J. R. R. Tolkein's "The Silmarillion" - and by "bit," I mean a good chunk, since the man was nothing if not verbose that spoke of how the world was created out of music, and music which was intensely beautiful by virtue of the fact that it was so very sad. I understand what this means, and the fact that I do so quite effortlessly, and recognize that most other people would also understand this concept with little difficulty, makes me ponder upon just how tremendously fucked-up humans are as a species. Sadness isn't beautiful when it's our own. It's painful and wrenching and everything but beautiful when we're in the midst of it. Why then do we see beauty in tragedy? I can only surmise that it's a defence mechanism developed to keep us from completely cracking up; nothing else seems to fit.

    I mention Tolkein partly because I'm a mild geek, but also because thematically it's not all that different. This story, like most of Tolkein's work, treats emotions in the superlative, and in huge, broad strokes. It has no room for irony or post-modern cynicism. It takes love deadly seriously, as something that transcends mere existence, and it doesn't have the most optimistic outlook on just how such an uncompromising view of love and loyalty is likely to turn out in the end. This, despite the complete lack of similarity in setting, is where I saw a similarity, since, as one character mentions in Lost and Delirious (though in reference to Shakespeare, not Tolkein), the subject is still relevant, and still the cause of much human angst. I just don't think it should.
  • puffchunk
    November 30, 2007
    puffchunk
    Blows with a capital B
  • Redlats
    August 12, 2007
    Redlats
    Teen love is so difficult when the love affair ends. And then there are all the images - this film reminds me of the plays we had to dissect in school - What is the significants of the raptor, of the Lady MacBeth quotes, etc. What is the role of the third person (Marissa from t...( read more)he OC) in the friendship?

    As an aside, I like it when I notice it is a Canadian film too
  • Camus123
    July 17, 2007
    Camus123
    Two souls united. Two hearts entwined. A casual observer taken into the fold...becomes a friend...becomes a confidante. Together we make each other stronger or...we have the capacity to tear each other down. Two in love and a third to see, but what is left in the end when one suc...( read more)cumbs to the will of a close-minded family and culture...is there room for love when convention rules the day? Can you break down those walls built over time by family and see what your heart truly wants you to see? Will you plant the seed or be planted yourself? Move with this movie and be moved. It is a masterpiece.
  • kramcup
    September 19, 2009
    kramcup
    The most sadest lesbian-theme movies I have ever seen. It made me cried so many times. One of my favourite movie.
  • meeshe011
    September 7, 2009
    meeshe011
    Good ...until someone commits suicide... Love Piper Perabo!
  • medullavespertinetmf
    August 27, 2009
    medullavespertinetmf
    Parejita incomprendida y la amiga de las dos que se siente confundida por sus sentimientos hacia ellas. Buen final.
  • adhdgoldfish
    August 19, 2009
    adhdgoldfish
    this is probably one of the saddest movies I've seen.
  • natalyvg92
    August 10, 2009
    natalyvg92
    i felt so bad they couldnt love each other
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