Guinevere (1999)

Directed by Audrey Wells. Starring Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea, Jean Smart, Gina Gershon, Carrie Preston, Paul Dooley, Sandra Oh. [R]

Romance between a sad-eyed, coldly-charming Bohemian photographer (Rea) and an uncultured, vulnerable ingenue (Polley) less than half his age. He’s drawn to her youth and beauty, she to his worldliness and capacity to mentor her into the adult world, and, indeed, he treats her as much as a protégé as he does a lover (he even requires her to find and pursue an artistic passion). An uneven drama that follows the conflicted nature of the doomed relationship at the center with its own askew observations and contrived behavior—it’s as frank as it is puzzling, disarming the viewer with well-rounded characterizations that defy the May-November/cradle-robber clichés, but I struggled to understand what kept the young woman coming back after each red flag raised (e.g., she knows he could practically stable a harem with all the young women he’s previously dated, none of whom had expectations of long-term commitment after each arranged-but-never-finished “five year plan”). The mood is distinct but fragile, leading to hiccups of uncertainty from first-time director Audrey Wells, but Wells does, erm, well with her lead actors, each of whom made me (usually) buy into the agreeably messy characterizations. The final scene, imagined as some sort of bittersweet form of dreamlike catharsis, didn’t work for me at all, though.

61/100