Truly Dreadful Film

To me, this movie is perfection.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This Catalan-Spanish teen lesbian movie very much anticipates the later Cannes-winning French film "Blue is the Warmest Color". Like the later film, it is about a sexually confused girl in her late teens who becomes involved with an older female artist who is much more of a committed lesbian. This results here though in tragedy as the heroine begins the movie in a coma after an accident and the rest of the movie is told in flashbacks.In America movies like this are called "gay interest", which implies--unfortunately accurately in many cases--that they may not hold much interest for anyone else who is NOT female and gay. But then again, many lesbians might justifiably scoff at some other "lesbian" movies like "Room in Rome" which seem a lot more interested in hot girl-on-girl action than in seriously portraying believable lesbian relationships. Even "Blue is the Warmest Color" fell victim to this latter criticism by people who couldn't see beyond the 15 minutes of hot sex scenes to consider the REST of the three-hour long movie. This film though is more immune to that criticism since there is really only one graphic lesbian scene near the end of the movie, long after most horny frat-boy types would have lost interest. Most of the movie is fairly believable if somewhat pedestrian female romance. The best scene by far is the startlingly filmed night swimming scene where the lovers break into the university pool after hours. This scene is so beautifully filmed and lit, you perhaps won't question why they turned on all these lights if they weren't supposed to be in the pool. This scene really transcends the rest of the movie and eventually returns later as a metaphoric image for the heroine's deep and perhaps irreversible coma.The coma plot is perhaps a little melodramatic and reminiscent of trite Hollywood crap like "If I Stay", but that is perhaps an unfair criticism since this movie came out years earlier. Despite the melodrama though, this is not nearly as dramatically compelling as "Blue is the Warmest Color" (and is also only about half the length). Diana Gomez, as the young university student, and Ariadna Cabrol, as the older artist, are both muy pretty girls with beautiful bodies even if they're not nearly as strong of actresses as Adele Exarchopolous and Lea Seydoux in "Blue" (but they also both have a lot more nude scenes than than Chloe Moretz in "If I Stay"). Some individual scenes are very impressive, but the movie as a whole is bit slight and rather cliché. But it also matters what you choose to compare it to. It is worth seeing at least.

Lots to like about this movie. The women are beautiful. Love the Catalan language and Barcelona scenery. I liked the main character Asia, and the free spirited Eloise.I thought the ending however was overly dramatic. I also thought Asia's reaction to her first experience with Eloise was 30 years in the past. Appropriate for those of my generation perhaps but young people now are much more sexually open. I would have liked more about her relationship with her father and her overbearing, manipulative mother. The movie was superficially pleasing but ultimately lacking in much body or substance. It needed another layer of complexity with the main characters. I would watch it again, if only for the women and to hear Catalan in a movie.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***Look I love lesbian films, being one myself, but I am very tired of this plot. This film contains nothing original. It's not a happy 'coming out' film by any stretch of the imagination. With quotes like "It made me feel dirty" and "that's disgusting" when referring to lesbian sexuality - my enthusiasm waned a tad. The other main flaw of this film is the poor editing. Some scenes just don't fit, and are completely out of context. Especially the ending. She's dead right?The film does have some good qualities, mostly the two main leads, but its poor fodder for any type of film goer. If you want sad traumatic lesbian film - go see a classic like "The Killing of Sister George" or "The Fox".

Although the basic premise of this movie sounds appealing, having watched this film I felt that it was yet another stereotypical movie. A young girl, Asia, meets and becomes intrigued with Eloise. They begin with friendship, which leads to more. However, she is involved in a car accident (the story is delivered in a series of flashes, back and forth between past and present, very convoluted) and in the end, actually dies.It was a rather nicely done movie, but honestly, that she died in the end, I saw it coming a mile away. It's a movie that I would assume would have been made in the early 90s, the outcome being so typical. What, she couldn't have just found happiness with another woman? She had to die? Pathetic. The acting was quite good, except for the actor who played Nat. Honestly, if your girlfriend was hit by a car, would you casually walk over to her? I think not. Maybe that was just poor directing, but honestly the guy was pretty bad. 4 out of ten for this movie, the outcome was pretty shocking. The flashing back and forth all the time made it hard to keep track of what was going on. And the end, Asia and Eloise getting on a bus and driving off into the sunset? Yea, Asia's dead. That ending wasn't going to happen and it was like a teaser as if to say 'Ha, ha, this is what could have happened'I really wouldn't recommend this movie at all.