DEVOTION is an exceptionally honest love story. Although it is about love affairs between women, its universal themes and characterizations make it appealing to a wide audience. It is an intelligent, humorous and compassionate film.
Sheila (Jan Derbyshire) is a popular stand-up comic. She returns from a tour to her live-in lover, Julie (Kate Twa), an artist who owns and runs a gallery. On her first night back, Sheila gets her big break: she is asked to play an openly homosexual woman on a new television comedy. Her enthusiasm
is crushed when she learns that the producer's wife is Lynn (Cindy Girling), the woman who broke Sheila's heart 15 years ago and hasn't been in contact with her since. When the two women were about 20 years old, they were best friends and roommates. Sheila fell in love with Lynn, kissed her, and
got kicked out. After 14 years of marriage, Lynn is questioning her sexuality, and wonders if she made a mistake about Shiela.
Sheila, whose comedy routines about fear of intimacy mirror her own inability to communicate her feelings, had never let Julie know about Lynn, and still won't tell Julie what's going on. Julie, frustrated and hurt, moves out. Lynn leaves her husband, and she and Sheila attempt to start over again
as lovers--but Sheila realizes that Lynn is her past, not her present. There will be no television show, but a warmer, more confident Sheila goes back to Julie, ready to move on with her life.
DEVOTION's story is not profound or unusual, but it is refreshingly open and genuine. Sheila and Julie's penultimate argument is as unflinchingly honest as you'll see in film, and the characters are brilliantly developed. Writer-director Mindy Kaplan's background as a therapist is evident, as she
has keen insight into what drives people, and how certain life events can alter them permanently.
Sheila's stand-up routines are outstanding, and despite the often heavy emotions, DEVOTION has a joyous spirit. The performances are heartfelt and the casting is, for the most part, ideal. Derbyshire shows true star potential, and the bit roles are authentic and charming. Girling, unfortunately,
overdoes the ice-queen image somewhat, but manages to show some passion when Lynn comes to terms with her own sexuality. The cinematic aspects of the film often take a back seat to the characterizations, but Kaplan's presentation of flashbacks, even the happy ones, in horror-movie fashion--slow
motion, distorted voices, ominous music--is creative and effective.
The film's pace slows considerably as Shiela's life gets more complicated, and the maudlin aspects of the film detract from its appeal. While its happy ending is rewarding, the tearjerker elements that precede it aren't as well done as DEVOTION's humorous earlier scenes. (Nudity, adult situations,
sexual situations, profanity) leave a comment
