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THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURE OF TWO GIRLS IN LOVE (1995) (**)

With such a whimsical title, one would expect a bit of whimsy, but the film for most of its running time plays as a dramatic (also a bit fantastic) coming-of-age tale.

Randall “Randy” Dean (Laurel Holloman, TV’s THE L WORD) is a teenage lesbian, who dresses tomboyish and only has one friend — a gay boy named Frank (Nelson Rodriguez). Randy lives with her lesbian aunt Rebecca (Kate Stafford) and her girlfriend and her ex-girlfriend. She’s been having an affair with a married woman named Wendy (Maggie Moore, AMERICAN SPLENDOR). Then one day, Evie Roy (Nicole Ari Parker, BOOGIE NIGHTS) stops by the gas station where Randy works and Randy is smitten.

Later, the two run into each other in the bathroom at school and talk about Evie’s recent break up with her boyfriend. Soon enough the two girls are hanging out together and Evie doesn’t seem bothered that Randy is gay. The developing romantic relationship between Randy and Evie is made complex by the fact that Randy is white and Evie is black; Randy is poor and Evie is rich; and Randy is a loser and Evie is popular.

Surprisingly the film doesn’t deal with race as even an issue. The poor and rich difference is only given lip service. So the differences between their popularity at school are focused on, but not so much either. The film presents interesting obstacles, but doesn’t really deal with them in any meaningful way.

Director Maria Maggenti seems more interested in telling a sweet teen romance. Being that it’s a lesbian relationship and Evie seems to have not been a lesbian until meeting Randy adds tension inherently, but Maggenti doesn’t seem to want to deal with this on an emotional level. That’s why I called the film a bit of a fantasy.

The beautiful straight girl falling in love with the tomboyish gay girl just because they connect seems more hopeful thinking than reality. The film gives us no other way of viewing it. However, the romance is still engaging, mainly do to the wonderful performances of Holloman and Parker. They’re so good that we forgive the fact that the rest of the cast is pretty weak. The performances also let us forget Maggenti’s random use of strange camera angles, which shows her inexperience more than her ability to try something new.

But what we ultimately cannot forgive is the film’s terrible ending. The film takes an awful turn into screwball comedy, which isn’t funny and is horribly clichéd. When Evie’s mom Evelyn (Stephanie Berry, FINDING FORRESTER) finds her seemingly straight daughter in bed with a white girl and is more worried about the mess they made in the house, the film is not funny or realistic. The film has heart, but nothing seems all that much at stake. Maggenti lets her characters off too easy. Disappointingly, she makes us care about her lead characters, but gives them nowhere to go. The conclusion is so contrived and ridiculous that even Patrick Dempsey in the 1980s would have been embarrassed.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks