Wonderful character development!

Truly Dreadful Film

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

You cant help but take Paulies side and react with disbelief to Tori's actions. She truly loves Paulie but is so scared of the consequences of following her heart. For me this is Piper Perabo's best and most memorable role. The love/ kissing scenes were passionate and very believable. Nothing at all gratuitous there. The fragility she gives Paulie as we watch her decline and ultimate demise is heartbreaking. It actually brought tears to my eyes. Credit also to a very young looking Mischa Barton. With so much intensity on screen we needed her to calm things down a bit every now and again.

Lost and Delirious is a lesbian love story with lots of passion, but not much else to offer. It has some enjoyable parts, but the cliché cheesiness leave something to be desired.MaryBeth (Mischa Barton), or "Mouse" as she is often called, is a sheltered young teen who is sent to a boarding school. She is still recovering from the death of her mother a few years earlier, and has difficulty fitting in. However, Mary B is put in a room with Tori (Jessica Pare) and Paulie (Piper Parabo), two older girls who are very much in love. While she is clearly heterosexual, the love starved Mary B is comforted by the open displays of love and affection between her two roommates. Tori and Paulie also bond with Mary (nicknaming her "Mary Brave") and all share painful stories about being neglected or rejected by their parents. But things go into a downward spiral after Tori's younger sister and her friends find Paulie and Tori in bed together. Horrified at the idea of being disowned by her religious parents, Tori tells everyone that Paulie forced herself on her, and begins dating a boy at the nearby boys' school. Paulie is beyond devastated, and spends most of her time in the woods healing and training an injured hawk. Poor Mary B is stuck in the middle between a newly repressed Tori and mentally cracking Paulie. Paulie quickly becomes an outcast with Mary and the bird as her only companions. Despite Mary and a kind teacher trying to help her, Paulie continues deeper into her nervous breakdown. The movie ends on a heart breaking note for all parties, leaving a bitter taste in the viewer's mouth.Lost and Delirious feels…half baked. If anything it definitely got the passion and emotion down very well. The love scenes were great and some of the sad scenes were good. As stated earlier the plot was cliché. It followed that basic plot of a gay movie where one character is "gayer" than the other, and one tries to be straight. That can be good if the characters are very interesting or original, but they were not. Paulie's character just seemed like a lesbian, more unstable version of Julie from The Next Karate Kid, even more with the addition of the hawk. Piper Parabo is also such a dead ringer for Hilary Swank that it almost feels like plagiarism. The viewers know little information about Tori, other than the fact that she is a closeted lesbian and has "religious" parents. The fact that they are religious or conservative is only revealed when the girls are found out, and they act as though this has already been established. Mary B is the best developed character, but they try too hard to make all of her narrations poignant and meaningful, but most just come off as silly. Many aspects of the plot didn't seem to make sense. If Tori was so afraid of being outed why would she openly sleep naked with Paulie when she knew her sister often barged into her room? Why would she even do so when she first met Mary? Mary could've been a gossipy homophobe for all she knew! Paulie has such a clear and slow mental breakdown that it is painful to watch. She is so ignored that her family would have good grounds to sue the school for not forcing her into counseling or sending her home for psychiatric treatment. Some themes of the movie also irritate me. Despite being a lesbian movie it equates femininity with weakness, and the girls act "masculine" when they are being strong. On top of that, it depicts suicide (particularly suicide over a lost love) as beautiful. That is just… that's not in good taste, and a rather poor message. The conclusion was not very satisfying, and left me wondering more about the characters. Not to mention, I found the characters' reaction to the painful ending rather lacking in emotion, if not totally indifferent.Lost and Delirious is mediocre at best. The writing isn't great, the acting isn't great, and the plot isn't great. Is it terrible? Well, no. There are several things I liked about the film, mainly the fact it was narrated by a third party. I also liked the passion they were able to depict, despite the lacking script. But in general, it's too corny to be good.

I suspect there are going to be two different reactions to "Lost and Delirious." Some people (most likely teenaged girls) will look past the many faults to find a theme that really resonates within themselves. Others won't be able to move beyond those many problems and will find the film shallow and manipulative. I'm afraid I belong to the latter group.Problem one: Manipulative. At one point in the movie there is a minute long close-up of one of the characters (Pauline) crying while a sad song plays in the background. Five seconds wouldn't do I guess. That is about as manipulative as movie making gets. The movie isn't trying to tell you a story; it is trying to make you cry.Problem two: Really bad plot holes. The movie is set at a girls boarding school and follows the lesbian affair of two of the students there. When the couple breaks up, one of the girls (again Pauline) rather quickly goes off the deep end. She starts exhibiting increasingly erratic and violent behavior. Nobody at the school does anything! The staff just stands around wringing their hands and thinking "Oh dear." Worst of all, as Pauline begins to stalk her former partner, nobody even thinks that it might be a good idea to move the girls out of the same dorm room! "Stalking" and "Violent" yet nobody seems to think separating the two girls might be a prudent idea! What is so ridiculous is that these were very easy plot holes to fix. Why not a 30 second scene of the staff moving Pauline to a different dorm room? No, no. Far better to have a minute long scene of Pauline crying.I suppose if I were younger and had not already seen so many better made movies with a similar theme I might have had a different reaction to "Lost and Delirious." Hmmmm. Let me think. Yes, if I were a teenager I might have given the movie 3 stars instead of only 2.

This movie is simply spectacular. No other movie has made me cry so hard before. This was amazingly done. Great filming. Great characters. Each character has a different personality that you get attached to. I can tell you right now, you will absolutely love this movie. Not even exaggerating, this made it to #1 on my movie list. This is a dramatic, romantic, and just amazing movie. There is so much symbolism in it, and so much more to enjoy. I HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone who hasn't see it. You can feel pain for the characters in the story. I love how it is a 3rd person point of view looking at a lesbian relationship. This movie isn't even about lesbians--It is simply love. Finding love with a PERSON. I will be seeing this a second time. I give this movie a 10 for a reason. It deserves this.