To me, this movie is perfection.

That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Outburst with expletives, bottoms and balls (literally, a blind lady has her head jammed between a naked man's thighs), Thom Fitzgerald's CLOUDBURST is not for the prude, adapted from his own awards-winning eponymous play, it is an atypical queer film illustrating a life-affirming story about an elderly lesbian couple, Stella and Dotty, played respectively by two Oscar winning actress Dukakis (MOONSTRUCK, 1987) and Fricker (MY LEFT FOOT, 1989).Stella and Dotty have been living together for 31 years, during which period Dotty has become blind. When Dotty's self-seeking granddaughter Molly (Booth) puts her in a nursing home, so as to secure the proprietorship of their property, a feisty Stella spirits Dotty away, they embark a road trip from Maine to Nova Scotia to get married. En route they pick up a young hitchhiker Prentice (Doucette), a guileless dancer-cum-stripper, who is on his way to visit his dying mother Cat (O'Brien), eventually, he becomes their best man and officiate their matrimony.From MOONSTRUCK to CLOUDBURST, hats off to Ms. Dukakis, edging 80-years-old during the filming, she takes up the gauntlet to play the larger-than-life butch dyke stereotype. Stella takes no prisoners in safeguarding her beloved Dotty, she is outspoken, indomitable and uncompromising, with a mouth can put even the most coarse sailor in the shade. She can also be mischievous and tender-heart-ed, the moments when she and Dotty share their rapport and emancipate their affections can be effectively and concurrently heart-warming and tear-jerking.Ms. Fricker, hides her Irish accent and counterbalances Stella's panache with her more inwardly- radiated warmness, the blind is often the wiser, but she is not a clichéd femme either, when it comes to the crunch, even Stella balks at their future, she remains firm and we realize who is the real decision-maker. Mr. Doucette, reprises his role in the play, is sidelined mostly as a comic relief in spite of his own misery and an eye-candy to offset the senescence-skewing melancholy which has been loomed around since the very onset.Mr. Fitzgerald doesn't try to sugarcoat a feel-good ending, since certain things cannot be sidestepped at that stage of life (as the title implies), instead, he chooses to instill laughter and hope in those darkest hours, to celebrate their fulfilled love, something only those lucky ones can have. Varnished with the golden-filtered palette and the awe-inspiring vista along their journey, no wonder CLOUDBURST is a massive crowd-pleaser in terms of its boutique license.

Olympia Dukakis is a beautiful old lady, miscast in this part. She delivers lines one would expect to hear from Alex of Orange is the New Black, and it just doesn't work for her -- or for this old lady writing this review. Now that same-sex marriage is the law of virtually all of the land in North America, even down here in Old Virginny, the movie does feel a bit dated. The fact that there is no resolution for Prentice in his relationship to his parents is disappointing. The writer seems to take the easy way out rather than seeing the situation to its probably more interesting ending than this treatment gives it. The movie at times descends to farce, though it has some touching moments. Prentice and Dot give excellent performances despite the weak, undeveloped script and immature directing.The cinematography in Maine and Nova Scotia are incredibly beautiful. I would not recommend this movie despite the three leads' terrific acting.

Loved this movie. Contrary to the other reviewer who found Olympia Dukakis' character offensive I thought she was wonderful. She was playing a character. She wasn't representing all lesbians. Yes it was over the top but I think the humanity of her character came through in spite of the swearing and 'bull dyke' representation. I think that the other character's grand daughter not realizing she was a lesbian was a bigger stretch than Olympia's character. I also thought that the relationship between the two main characters was very realistic whether you wanted to accept their characterizations or not. I actually went to this movie not expecting much and really just wanted to see Olympia Dukakis. I came out of the movie laughing, crying and uplifted by a story of love that is universal and eternal. I am sorry if you didn't want to accept a lesbian who wears vests, cowboy hats, drinks tequila and swears like a sailor but they do exist and so what? Who cares? Love is love. If you want to laugh and cry and believe that everyone should have the right to marry the person they love no matter what then go see this movie. If you are easily offended by a bull dyke characterization of an elderly lesbian then you may want to skip it but you will be missing a real treat.

This was an excellent movie. The 3 stars Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker and Ryan Doucette give outstanding performances and make the characters believable and interesting. Thom Fitzgerald takes a simple story and turns it into a wonderful journey with spectacular backdrops spectacular performances from his cast. In the course of 2 hours he is able to develop each of the main characters so that we really care about each of them. The minor Characters are a little cliché at times but it never takes away from the story or what makes this a great movie. The movie has course language but if you are not upset by this you will find yourself laughing and crying all within the length of the movie. Do yourself a favour and go see this!