Jun 16, 2011 05:23 PM
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The dream sequence in the beginning shows a young delicately beautiful woman trapped under a sheet of ice, swimming in icy cold waters. Another woman with mermaid blonde hair appears and tries to engirdle her in the water.
The trapped character is Camille who wakes up in her bed being licked lovingly by her little dog Bob. Camille is a professor of mythology in an uptight protestant college. She has been seeing Martin her fellow professor for three years. She lives alone.
A strict, cold and suffocating atmosphere is further affected by the death of little Bob. Camille’s loneliness is poignant when she keeps him in the fridge. As she sobs in the Laundromat, the flamboyant and confident Petra comes in her life as the most required and missed element. The gorgeous youthful Petra is a skilled performer in a travelling circus. She brings passion, warmth, and meaning to Camille’s life.
The movie is beautiful in the way it advances and shows how love can be the best escape. It also has touches of humor in quite a few places. Camille’s unsaid thoughts and feelings are beautifully portrayed through images and symbolisms. The director and writer Patricia Rozema shows a tender sensitive mind in doing so.
The storyline will probably recall ‘Desert Hearts’, another beautiful love story with a happy ending. What touched me was the innocence and honesty of the two women. Camille who is torn between a life which is limiting and aspires for freedom of the individual and Petra who never hides her overwhelming adoration for the beautiful Camille.
Some of the most romantic parts of the movie are the ones about the courtship between Petra and Camille. The mischievous Petra switching the laundry intentionally to see Camille again. Petra adoring Camille’s beauty in poetry like speech with Camille getting overwhelmed. The Robin hood act of shooting arrows with message through Camille’s window and Camille’s answer to it by kissing Petra passionately(to the surprise of Petra and the audience).
The circus arial artists and performers all add to an other worldly surreal look. A world, Camille falls in love with and with Petra who is always dressed in warm colors like red. This continues in the first love making scene amidst bright red sheets. The two women who deeply look into each others eyes all the time blend with each other like colors of a rainbow. The look of innocence in true love says everything and purges everything. However real world troubles have not vanished.
In Indian cinema, we often find gay themes and characters ridiculed and shown as fools. Well we should learn something from the outsiders. In this movie, Martin the boyfriend looks like a fool. He loves the new Camille as he feels her passion as they make love. He dreams of marrying her and waits for her only to discover the heart wrenching truth. He confronts both the women in a controlled way and he leaves by saying to Camille, ‘Don’t say anything.’ End of it I felt sorry for him.
Pascale Bussières looks serenely beautiful as the sweet and controlled Camille. Rachael Crawford as Petra has the kid mischief look as well as having the hot appeal. Two absolutely gorgeous women worth falling for in one look. The Canadian landscape captures the coldness and challenge, the characters feel.
No matter what orientation you have, if you like sweet but realistic love stories between passionate people, watch this. You won’t regret. About Bob you need to do the willing suspension of disbelief. Watch this Canadian movie and you will know why.
