A sort of lesbian rallying call, based on a novel by Jane Rule. The physical setting is quite good, although the best of it -- a Nevada dude ranch for recuperating divorcées, Western shirts with fancy piping, and so on -- was better in The Women; and the 1950s time-setting is an unnecessary complication. Helen Shaver is much too pinched and prim as an Eastern university English professor, even one in the repressive Fifties -- she's more like the stereotyped small-town librarian. And Patricia Charbonneau's tan, bold, confident lesbian seems -- especially for the Fifties -- a figure from some distant future (or other realm of fantasy). Both of them are overarticulated as if for the half-blind, half-deaf, and all-stupid. Their earth-shaking carnal contact is worth at least some of the wait, and the English professor gets off one good line: "When I retire, I will simply write a short story for my revenge." But the concerns of director Donna Deitch are rather with polemics than dramatics. (1986) — Duncan Shepherd
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