The Book of Gabrielle

Like Lisa Gornick’s first work, Do I Love You?, The Book of Gabrielle is philosophical and introspective. This time, Gornick tackles the subject of sex. Gornick’s exploration of sex is a lot more talking about sex than showing it. Which I like! But the film probably isn’t universal. The lead characters are smart and interesting. But they also know they’re smart and interesting. This is a lot of words to say the film or at least, its characters run a bit pretentious.

In this film, Lisa Gornick’s fictional self insert is named Gabrielle. Gabrielle is writing and illustrating a book. There’s some real truth in advertising with the title of this film. Gabrielle’s book is about sex, through her personal lens. Gabrielle crosses paths with successful writer, Saul. Saul takes an interest in Gabrielle and becomes a friend and mentor. The two talk about life, art but most frequently, sex. In Gabrielle’s personal life, she has a younger girlfriend named Olivia. But as she delves deeper into her writing about sex, she begins questioning her relationship.

The meat of The Book of Gabrielle is Saul and Gabrielle having challenging, artistic, verbose conversations. And personally, I really liked this. It’s true these characters and conversations run a bit pretentious. But I did find these characters to be both smart and interesting. And it was great seeing open dialogue between them. Saul and Gabrielle have some things in common to form a stable common ground. But they are also different in many ways. Perhaps most notably, their experiences diverge due to their gender. What works is that both seem open and receptive to other ideas and points of view. Saul learns from Gabrielle and Gabrielle learns from Saul. And as a viewer, I enjoyed watching this and maybe learned a little too.

Then there’s Gabrielle’s voice over monologues about sex. I also really liked these. Sex is a messy, private topic. But Gornick and her fictional counterpart talk about sex with a very frank and open tone. Gabrielle gets into some of her weirder fantasies. And there’s some exploration of gender as well, with Gabrielle wanting to be masculine during sex. These segments successfully achieve the universal from the specific. Gabrielle’s thoughts and experiences are entirely unique to her. They’re uniquely weird, embarrassing and sexy. And that’s everyone’s experience with sexuality. Sex is weird. Sexuality is perhaps weirder. The Book of Gabrielle understands and even celebrates that through its lead character’s stories and experiences.

The end of Saul and Gabrielle’s relationship hurts. And part of why it hurts is because it’s something that happens in real life. I really loved these two characters’ friendship. They also did have a layer of chemistry that ran towards the sexual. But just as Gabrielle is making overtures towards Saul, she finds his writing. And she finds that Saul has taken their conversations and her being and written a reductive, sexualized story around them. It’s heartbreaking. It feels like a betrayal. And it’s not because Saul sexualizes her. Sexuality is a normal part of human existence. And Gabrielle was initially fine with exploring that with him. But seeing how he reduced her and their intelligent conversations into an objectified fantasy is where the betrayal lies. It’s heartbreaking because it’s relatable.

I quite enjoyed The Book of Gabrielle. I thought it was smart and interesting. It was also a nice change to see a film so focused on sex be so sexless in terms of scenes. I love some long deconstructions of concepts. I enjoy The Discourse. So, The Book of Gabrielle appealed to me. Gornick is someone whose opinions I am interested in. And beyond that, she knows how to craft a character and film that provides even more interest than her philosophical explorations.

Overall rating: 6.6/10

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