There are worse films out there I suppose, but where "The Guest House" falters is not its production values or low budget, but the fact that the love story between the two characters is so empty and their affection is so forced.
I don't know if these women were uncomfortable with the homosexual aspect, if their acting was just *that* bad, or if the director had an unnatural vision of what women in love really looked like. They would go from sweet nothings to forceful, aggressive making out; they would be having a random conversation about life and suddenly one of them would pounce on the other...lesbians or not, *people* don't do this. There was zero sensuality during any given encounter. No tenderness no softness, no sweetness. It was more like drunken lust, but even all the a** grabbing and rough kissing looked awkward and struck me as that of rushed, groping teenagers. The end result comes off as attempt at eye candy under the guise of of male's vision of what two women look like.
Now I *might* could suspend belief long enough when it came to this weird forced eroticism if the rest of the story had been convincing...but it isn't. Apart from the the father, there is absolutely NOTHING driving the plot. These girls fall in love with each other in a complete vacuum. There are no friends around, no jobs to go to, no competition for affection, and no parents aside from the last few minutes. Nothing really happens - there's nothing to drive their relationship forward or test their limits or to develop them as characters that we can care about, relate to, and understand. Really, how much of a story is there about two people falling in love who are almost completely cut off from the outside world?
About the time that the film would've gotten interesting, when the couple hits their "speed bump" in the form of dad, we cut a few months later, gloss over it, and everything's fine. Even when the film gives us conflict, we don't really get any.
The dialog is pretty bad too, and this ties back into nothing much of any interest occurring. The writers try to give the girls character through these long winded conversations amounting to "what's your favorite color" for half the film which is painful to listen to. After some skin we move over to mostly endless pillow talk. And it never lets up. These ladies communicate through the most banal remarks about how much they love other. What they sound like are, like the sex scenes, uncomfortable teens. They don't really know each other so they make nervous small talk that is unbearable.
And so we have what might look like a sweet little love story that ultimately has very little humanity left in it. We don't know the characters, their story happens outside of real life, and there's just nothing for the audience to connect with. A real love story, between 2 people of any sex, should be able to speak to anybody (except perhaps the severely homo or heterophobic) because we're able to relate to how they get to know each other and their search for happiness. But that vibe just isn't here. There is nothing to hang on to, and what's left in its stead is almost impossible to sit through.
I don't know if these women were uncomfortable with the homosexual aspect, if their acting was just *that* bad, or if the director had an unnatural vision of what women in love really looked like. They would go from sweet nothings to forceful, aggressive making out; they would be having a random conversation about life and suddenly one of them would pounce on the other...lesbians or not, *people* don't do this. There was zero sensuality during any given encounter. No tenderness no softness, no sweetness. It was more like drunken lust, but even all the a** grabbing and rough kissing looked awkward and struck me as that of rushed, groping teenagers. The end result comes off as attempt at eye candy under the guise of of male's vision of what two women look like.
Now I *might* could suspend belief long enough when it came to this weird forced eroticism if the rest of the story had been convincing...but it isn't. Apart from the the father, there is absolutely NOTHING driving the plot. These girls fall in love with each other in a complete vacuum. There are no friends around, no jobs to go to, no competition for affection, and no parents aside from the last few minutes. Nothing really happens - there's nothing to drive their relationship forward or test their limits or to develop them as characters that we can care about, relate to, and understand. Really, how much of a story is there about two people falling in love who are almost completely cut off from the outside world?
About the time that the film would've gotten interesting, when the couple hits their "speed bump" in the form of dad, we cut a few months later, gloss over it, and everything's fine. Even when the film gives us conflict, we don't really get any.
The dialog is pretty bad too, and this ties back into nothing much of any interest occurring. The writers try to give the girls character through these long winded conversations amounting to "what's your favorite color" for half the film which is painful to listen to. After some skin we move over to mostly endless pillow talk. And it never lets up. These ladies communicate through the most banal remarks about how much they love other. What they sound like are, like the sex scenes, uncomfortable teens. They don't really know each other so they make nervous small talk that is unbearable.
And so we have what might look like a sweet little love story that ultimately has very little humanity left in it. We don't know the characters, their story happens outside of real life, and there's just nothing for the audience to connect with. A real love story, between 2 people of any sex, should be able to speak to anybody (except perhaps the severely homo or heterophobic) because we're able to relate to how they get to know each other and their search for happiness. But that vibe just isn't here. There is nothing to hang on to, and what's left in its stead is almost impossible to sit through.
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