Movie Review- Loving Annabelle

My girlfriend and I watched this on our very first internet date (we watch the same movie at the same time and im or text back and forth. It's as close to a normal date as we can really get, what with all the distance). I was in my "I'm gay but that doesn't mean I have to do every lesbian thing out there, gah!" stage, so watching such a superlez movie grated on my nerves. By the way, spoilers abound.

I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't like it either. In case you didn't know, "Loving Annabelle" is the movie in which the young lesbian seduces her teacher and they become lovers, get caught and all that. I didn't like it because I felt like it glamorized an inadvisable relationship, and it seemed like most of the tension was because "ooooh it's so deliciously forbidden!" rather than any real romantic or sexual tension. However, I am going to try to be fair, and I'm watching it again, this time paying closer attention to the relationships of the characters.

It probably helps that I'm going to be watching it alone this time, and not sending mushy ims to a really attractive girl. That probably did nothing for my attention span.

Now that I've watched it with minimal distraction, my opinion hasn't changed much, but I can now put a finger on why their relationship bothers me (other than the whole student-teacher love is ick). It bothers me because Annabell is the only character in the movie who doesn't seem real. She's too mature and perfect. She's actually more mature than the teacher, Simone. Not once do we see her really act like a teenager, and it bothers me.

On the second watching, the "forbidden love" thing appears to be less glamorized than I remember it, and the movie portrays Simone's torture quite well. She gives in to her feelings, and she's punished for it- the nun who calls the police isn't an enemy, she's just a woman doing her job, and they don't make her an enemy. The girl who turns in the lovers is shown to be a bitch and she does it out of jealousy that Annabelle doesn't prefer her, and her friends desert her. In all, the whole thing is pretty realistically done, and it ends fairly ambiguously.


If you replaced Annabelle with a boy or Simone with a man, the movie's tone might change a little, but I don't think the difference would be all that big- the hidden secret of Simone's sexuality wouldn't matter, but other than that the movie wouldn't change. In the end, that isn't the plot, the plot is exploring how the student-teacher romance bloomed, and it's pretty interesting. I just thought it kinda cool that for once, this isn't a lesbian movie that spends all its time focusing on how hard it is to be lesbian and come out and all that.

Watch the movie if you feel like it, but I don't think I want to watch it again. While interesting and subtly done, it doesn't draw me in like other movies can.