The Good: Umm . . . Amusing at times, Interesting initial characterizations
The Bad: THEMES!!!!, Characters go nowhere, Editing/Direction, Pacing
The Basics: A huge disappointment, Desert Hearts runs with unrealistic characters who manipulate each other and pressure them to meet their own need.
Desert Hearts was described to me as a film I would probably enjoy. It is supposedly a classic lesbian film wherein a university professor arrives in Nevada to get a divorce and falls in love with a rogue, funloving casino employee. It sounds good on paper, but it never lives up to its potential.
What Desert Hearts actually is is a plodding movie that feels like an 80s rebellion movie at the pace of a 1930s silent film. Hey, it's set in the 50s, so I suppose it averages out.
Vivian Bell, is in fact a university professor who is divorcing her husband for no apparent reason. The subtext, however, is clearly that she does not love him and she is looking for someone entirely different. Enter the reckless-driving, unabashedly out of the closet casino worker, Cay Rivvers. What follows is an often convoluted set of circumstances between Vivian, her benefactor at the ranch she's staying at - Frances - who is also the de facto mother of Cay, and Cay. Conflicts arise at various times between the three which lead to Vivian and Cay opening up to one another.
What works? Usually I don't have to struggle so much to come up with good things to say about the film. In this case, after the first ten minutes, I was struggling to keep watching. There were moments of amusement, especially between Cay and her friend Silver. However, outside the set-up, the original characterizations, there is little of interest. That is, the film begins with the appearance that it shall be an intriguing film. It falls flat.
First off, the direction was just plain annoying. The transition from each scene is done using a side swipe and it's distracting. It also slows the pace by giving a very repetitive feel to the different scenes. Moreover, occasionally, there will be a random snippet thrown in between two scenes that does nothing, for example after panning over the ranch, there might be a swipe that takes us to a completely different place - unconnected - and just shows us something more. I recall off-hand the second time the casino was shown an extensive series of views wherein I sat up and said aloud, "We know it's a casino, we've been here already! Get on with it!" It's frustrating to be treated like an idiot by the director.
None of the characters lived up to my expectations. I'm not complaining that they didn't end up where they did (because they ended up where I figured they would), but rather the set up for who they were provided much more interesting than they ended up. Vivian is the perfect example. Almost instantly, there is a subtext to suggest that her divorce is because she has had an epiphany about her sexuality. However, she then resists expressing any attraction to Cay when her advances are obvious. So, my thought was that this could be a wonderful film that says, "Lesbians aren't desperate." That is, too often in lesbian cinema, there are two women who end up together regardless of how viable a true romance is between them simply because they are both lesbians. I thought Desert Hearts might be a film to finally say something to that effect, like, "Just because we're the only two lesbians in this desert doesn't mean we have to fall for each other."
Alas, it didn't go that route. In fact, the single most disturbing aspect of the movie is that it works on the theme, "If you just keep pushing, someone will do what you want them to." Cay basically forces herself upon Vivian, who resists until Cay - in the film's least subtle and most silly scene - makes it absolutely clear that she won't take "no" for an answer. Vivian closes the film with doing the same thing to Cay, pressuring her to get on a train with her.
This film has nothing erotic, nothing interesting and nothing positive. I try to support the genre, but this film was, in the final analysis, just plain bad.
For other films with strong or interesting lesbian, gay or bisexual characters, please check out my reviews of:
Bound
But I'm A Cheerleader!
Strawberry And Chocolate
2/10
For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2002 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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