Girl Play

Two Women, One Love, Dozens of Stories!

Cast in a small Los Angeles play together, Robin and Lacie are to play lesbian lovers. The director insists upon the two getting to know each other, so that their intimacy on stage looks that much realer, but they find it hard to separate their acting from their own growing feelings towards each other, questioning whether they're falling in love or are just getting confused by their roles.

Based on the real life and relationship of the two lead actresses, Robin Greenspan (Out There in Hollywood) and Lacie Harmon (The Ten Rules, Short on Sugar), Girl Play is really a look at lesbian relationships from two peoples perspectives, and the power of love overriding whatever personal issues and hangups a person may have.

Whilst there is definitely chemistry between Robin and Lacie, their relationship doesn't really seem to get enough time to truly develop, leaving it feeling somewhat rushed. We don't get to see them as a couple when they're together. There's actually only 66 minutes of acting (and narrating) in the film, with a third of that devoted to separate aspects of each others lives; Robin's difficulties with her mother, and Lacie splitting up with an old girlfriend. It's not that these strands aren't important, they definitely do add to the film, but it only serves to highlight how sparse the development of Robin and Lacie's relationship with each other is, something which is clearly key to a film that's the story of how they got together.

The humour in Girl Play is good, mostly stemming from Robins neuroses, and the ridiculousness of her mother and play director Gabriel, played by Mink Stole (But I'm a Cheerleader, Out at the Wedding) and Dom DeLuise (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Cannonball Run I and II) respectively. There are several points in the film that I laughed out loud, with only a few lines falling flat. The narration to the camera though is where the comedy aspect really starts to unravel, especially on Robin's part where she starts to wildly overact, which just left me feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

You can definitely see the playhouse origins of the story in how it's brought to the viewer, the story-telling mostly done by narration from the two leads as they talk about their past and current relationships in trying to explain why they are the people that they are in the actual plot. This is somewhat problematic because the film ends up spending more time on their talking than on the actual acting, leading to a certain sense of disassociation from the story, making it harder to actually care about the characters.

One of the things that does really stand out about this film is the soundtrack. Whilst sometimes out of place with the actual story, the individual music is always very good, especially the tracks written and performed by Sara Bareilles, "Fairytale," and "Gravity," both featured on her album, "Little Voice." "Undertow," the third of her songs in the film is on her first album, "Careful Confessions," alongside the other two tracks. I'll certainly be having a good listen to her music.

Girl Play's heart is in the right place, and you can see the movie that it's trying to be, but it still ends up feeling juvenile in its sense of purpose, losing sight of the relationship to focus on humour. It's not a bad film, by any account, but it should have been better, especially since it truly is a labour of love for the two lead actresses.

6/10

-- Reviewed on October the 14^th, 2007.

Find more details about Girl Play over at The Internet Movie Database.