Coming Out

"So my old lady's a dyke--big deal." Spencer's reaction to the discovery that his mother is gay sums up one's feelings about Lianna. For two, hours, the movie explores various stereotyped reactions to Lianna's realization that she is homosexual. Like the audience, she is bored--with her marriage, with her children, and with her monotonous daily routine.

Lianna--an attractive woman in her early 30's--gave up college to marry her professor. By the time the movie begins, she has realized that she cannot stand him. The realization is not surprising: Dick epitomizes chauvinist arrogance with no redeeming qualities. The mystery is why it took her more than 13 years to come to this conclusion.

Early on, the movie shows the none-too-subtle difference between Lianna and her husband. Theta, their eight-year-old daughter, refuses to finish her peas and demands to know why she must. Her father explains. "Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to clam up and eat." Lianna, somewhat more sympathetic, secretly eats half the peas.

At a faculty party, Lianna spots Dick frolicking in a sandbox with one of his female students. When, later in the evening, she accuses him of indefidelity, he neither admits to not denies the charge. But the thin trickle of sand as he removes his shoe confirms his guilt. Lianna leaves him and moves in with Ruth, her night-school psychology professor. It's that simple. One day she is married, the next she has a female lover.

Linda Griffiths as Lianna does the lonely and pathetic look so well that we don't believe she could make such a radical change without a second thought. One expects, even wants, to see some moments of remorse or soul-searching. Lianna feels uncomfortable in the "My Way Tavern," a lesbian bar, for only a few minutes--soon she is dancing naturally, though not well, with the other women. In the bar she notices, sure enough, a member of the PTA; thus, director John Sayles points out unoriginally that anyone can be gay.

REACTIONS to Lianna's transformation cover only the extremes. Like her two children, Lianna's friends respond with either sullen avoidance or indifferent acceptance. The college football coach, a friend of Lianna's, does not mind homosexuality in his players as long as it doesn't affect their game. Lianna's female friend Sandy remembers with revulsion the time she held hands with Lianna. A colleague of Dick's, who discovers Lianna's new sexual orientation after she rejects him as a lover, asks no questions and tries to play it extremely cool. None of the characters bring anything new to the issue, behaving as they do in standard stereotyped ways.

A general sense of awkwardness pulls the film and many of its characters together. All of the actors seem to feel uncomfortable with their roles. A rare exception is the woman who lives upstairs from Lianna--though not interesting, her performance is at least refreshingly natural.

Although many of its characters are gay, Lianna fails to deal with lesbianism as an issue. The suddenness and irreversability of Lianna's decision make the fact that she is a lesbian almost incidental to the story. In contrast to other recent movies about homosexuals, for example Making Love, homosexuality is not central to the theme. Lianna would unfold no differently if its characters were heterosexual. Rather, it focuses on liberation and the price Lianna has to pay to be free.

Interminable scenes of Lianna alone in her bare apartment are highlighted by the strains of sentimental love-songs. Director Sayles heightens the effect by shooting from above, making the character seem trapped and helpless. Neither insightful nor original, the work is fundamentally boring. Sayles heightens this effect too, one hopes unintentionally, by avoiding any striking or colorful shots. Like the eating of the peas, Lianna is not open to reason, and its content, ultimately, is no big deal.