ditt63 Review of Loving Annabelle

Loving Annabelle (2006)

Superficially enjoyable but not believable...

[4/10 · 2 August 2007]

I want to preface this by saying that I am thrilled that lesbians are being depicted more and more regularly, and less stereotypically, in television and film. On a superficial level, I enjoyed this film—particularly Diane Gaidry's portrayal of the sexually-repressed yet undeniably hot teacher, Simone. But I simply could not believe that Simone would fall for Annabelle who, to me, seemed like a self-important, immature teenage girl who would not be worth the risk of getting involved with. Maybe it's a generational thing—certainly, Erin Kelly is an attractive-enough actor—but there simply was nothing compelling about her character. The script makes cloddy attempts to show that Annabelle has an artist's depth (which we are supposed to conclude from her not-very-insightful interpretation of poetry, her recognition of Simone's photographic skills, and the singularly unremarkable song she apparently wrote and plays for Simone), the compassion of a much more mature person (which we are supposed to conclude from her comforting a classmate who has lost a pet and from her comforting Simone after discovering—by snooping, no less—that the woman Simone loved killed herself), and the courage of her convictions (which we are supposed to conclude from her unwillingness to give up her Buddhist beads). These attempts are unconvincing and inconsistent with Annabelle's overall surly demeanor. If Simone were driven merely by flattery and lust, then the coupling might seem understandable, but the story seems to go out of its way to show that there is a deeper connection between the two, one that drives the poised, thoughtful and otherwise careful Simone to throw caution to the wind and bed down with jail bait when it isn't even clear that she was able to do the same with a woman she knew for years and loved. I had a hard time believing it.