Liz in September

Liz in September is one of those movies where a presumed heterosexual in an unhappy relationship is seduced into lesbianism without too much effort. The presumed heterosexual this time is Eva. Eva’s husband is cheating on her and their child died of a terminal illness. After her car breaks down, Eva ends up at a hotel where there’s a meetup of lesbian friends. Here, Eva meets Liz after a fish-based misunderstanding. Liz makes a bet with her friends that she can seduce Eva in three days. However, real feelings form nullifying the bet. Unfortunately, Liz is not only dying, she is dying of the same disease that Eva’s child had.

For a movie about a lesbian with terminal illness, Liz in September spent most of its screen time failing to make me feel anything. I spent the majority of the movie just feeling a disconnect to the characters. I didn’t really care about Liz nor her relationship with Eva so I wasn’t overly upset that she was dying. More than anything, I felt frustrated by how rushed Liz and Eva’s relationship felt. Even though Liz has a group of caring, loving, long-time friends, it is Eva who she barely knows for whom Liz agrees to get treatment. Eva becomes the most important part of Liz’s life so quickly in a way that really minimizes the fact that Liz does have a group of committed friends who do honestly know her better.

At one point, Eva asks Liz, “why do I love you so much? Is it because you’re dying?” To which Liz responds, “probably.” On the one hand, I admire the honestly of that piece of dialogue. On the other hand, it further undercuts a relationship that wasn’t that strong to begin with.

And yet, despite my feeling of disconnect for the majority of the movie, I did have feelings and some tears where shed in the last 15 minutes. Eva gets pregnant because the lone heterosexual encounter in gay movies always ends in pregnancy. This is where I start connecting. Eva says she’ll name the child after Liz and Liz asks her to teach the child diving because that is what Liz loves most. Something about that line really got me and suddenly I started feeling emotions that didn’t stop until the movie finished. However, this revelation is near the end of the movie so it was only about 15 minute of experiencing feelings.

Really with Liz in September I’m just trying to work out if the fact that the last 15 minutes did make me cry makes up for the fact that the first hour and 25 minutes made me feel very little. Ultimately, I don’t think that math evens out. There are definitely worse films that Liz in September but the fact that it took me so long to connect with the story or characters isn’t going to encourage me to recommend this movie. It’s not a movie to definitely avoid either because Liz in September hovers between fine and good which is more than you can say for a lot of WLW movies. But if you want tear-jerker depictions of terminal illness, Freeheld or Happy End?! are ones I’d recommend you see first as they’re both better.

Overall rating: 6.1/10

Other WLW films in similar genres