Movie Watching: Claire of the Moon (thumbs down)
So, despite reading bad reviews about this film I wanted to see it. I am a connoisseur of Gay and Lesbian films after all. I have seen both good and terribly bad independent low-budget Lesbian films.
Unfortunately, Claire is a bad one.
Claire and Noel are two female writers who end up sharing a cabin on a writers retreat. They are played as the “odd couple” with conflicting habits. Including Noel being a very straight-laced organized person. Also very conservative. And Claire being a very messy and unorganized person. Also very loose with her sexual favors. The women just cannot find a way to get along or compromise their habits, despite a valiant effort to do so. Until Noel is criticized at one of the “writer’s pow-wows” for being a lesbian. Suddenly Noel becomes very interesting to Claire (I guess she didn’t know conservative women with a doctorate could be lesbians). In between and after there’s a lot of “intellectual” discussions on the dynamics of relationships (both between Claire and Noel and between the women of the group). Meanwhile, it becomes clear the women are becoming attracted to each other. The leading ladies pull off a few good scenes and I became somewhat invested in what would become the resulting affair. I knew there was an affair. Only, and this is my biggest issue with the whole film,….
Spoiler coming….
The whole movie added up to the two leads having friggin’ sex. That’s where the bloody movie ends, with them having friggin’ sex. Now I like a good sex scene, but I like it with substance. What about the day after, what about the consequences? What about the “hetero”woman dealing with her relationship with another woman for a first time (outside of the sex). What about Noel, who had been burned so badly by the last woman she loved? How would she deal with the straight girl in the after? This movie’s ending destroys what was only a so-so film anyway. Women want more than that out of a story, we want to see a journey. As it stands, Claire of the Moon spent the length of the movie on 1/3 of the Journey.
Thumbs Down 
