Between Two Women

Between Two Women is an understated love story set Northern England in the 1950’s. With that setting, you can imagine there’s a whole love of repression, sexual and otherwise going on in the film. But damn, surely there’s a way to make a movie about repression without making it quite so dull.

The film’s lead romance is between wife and mother Ellen who develops a connection with her son’s teacher, Kathy. Kathy encourages Ellen’s son, Victor to pursue art and enters one of his pieces into competition. This allows Kathy and Ellen to spend even more time together. This is all to the displeasure of Ellen’s husband.

God, this movie is dull. The film uses its lead characters as a representation of their bleak and repressed setting. But they’ve taken it too far. Surely the core romance and key characters should sparkle a little more against their dull lives and grey location. As a result, they nearly fade into the nondescript background.

What would have helped is if the film had more depth and nuance. It’s not by any means the shallowest film I’ve seen but it does lack the levels needed to add interest to these flat characters. The film is about a strong bond formed between women in what seems to be a hopeless and unwelcoming world. It might have helped if women had told this story and made this movie instead of men. Admittedly, I’ve seen good lesbian movies with similar themes written by men but this is not one of them. There’s not enough insight or understanding into these women’s lives. So we’re left with dull characters with no depth.

As if to make up for Between Two Women’s dull story, the directing is too heavy handed. There’s a constant attempt to inject emotion or tension into scenes artificially using close-ups, other camera tricks or the musical score. It doesn’t work. The directing feels like it belongs in a less understated movie and doesn’t assist giving the film any depth or level of engagement.

Additionally, Between Two Women plays so subtle with its key love story I’m not even sure if I should feature it on the site. Ellen and Kathy talk about their relationship in somewhat abstract terms, devoid of emotion. They hold hands once and that’s it. There’s neither any love confessions nor a kiss. I guess these characters and the movie itself are too repressed for that.

Between Two women is a dull, forgettable movie. I’ve seen tons like this film, some better, some worse but all with more personality. The film wants to say something and make a point but it’s not strong enough to do so. Unable to convey a message, that leaves the film’s actual story which is full of boring characters going about fairly boring lives. Much as this film has a level of competence to it, I’m giving it a negative review because I just can’t think of a positive.

Overall rating: 4.4/10

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