Themes: Questioning Sexuality, Sexual Awakening, Infidelity
Main Cast: Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, David de Vries, Jo Henderson, Jessica Wight MacDonald
Release Year: 1983
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
After helping to kick-start the independent film movement in America with The Return of the Secaucus Seven, John Sayles wrote, directed, and edited his second feature, about a woman who finds herself staring life over after coming out of the closet as a lesbian. Lianna (Linda Griffiths) is a woman in her early thirties who's married to Dick (Jon DeVries), who teaches film at a college in Boston. Lianna first met Dick when she was a student in his class, and while she's grown more assertive and independent with time, Dick has become bitter and difficult, though he tries to be patient with their two children, Spencer (Jesse Solomon) and Theda (Jessica Wight MacDonald). Lianna, who dropped out of college when she married Dick, has begun taking classes again, and strikes up a close friendship with one of her professors, Ruth (Jane Hallaren); Dick, however, would prefer that she spend her time helping him with research on his upcoming thesis. When Lianna discovers Dick has been having an affair with one of his students, she begins to wonder about her future with him as well as her own feelings, and one evening, after dinner and conversation with Ruth, Lianna discovers her new friend has romantic feelings toward her -- and that she feels the same way toward Ruth. When Lianna confronts Dick with the news of her relationship with Ruth, he's livid and makes her leave the house, forcing her to start a new life for herself as she comes to terms with her own sexuality. Comic actor Chris Elliott makes his screen debut in Lianna in a small role as a lighting technician for a dance troupe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
As anyone who's read or seen The Celluloid Closet knows, gay themes and gay characters have a history as old as filmmaking itself. John Sayles' Lianna isn't the first to document the coming-out experience, but it's one of the first to take it as its sole subject. Perhaps just as important is the inclusion of an element that's now taken for granted in gay-themed films: joy. While Sayles doesn't shy away from the difficulties faced by his protagonist upon revealing her sexual orientation, he first concerns himself with the pleasure and emotional release of her awakening rather than treating her sexuality as the burden or pitiable curse of past films. Technically, Sayles had not quite worked out the creakiness of his first film, Return of the Seacaucus Seven, and the acting retains a similar unevenness, but his own novelistic evenhandedness and observational skills are already prominently on display here. ~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
Jesse Solomon - Spencer; John Sayles - Jerry; Stephen Mendillo - Bob; Betsy Julia Robinson - Cindy; Nancy Mette - Kim; Maggie Renzi - Sheila; Amanda Carlin - Dick's Student; Madelyn Coleman - Mrs. Hennessy; Chris Elliott - Lighting Assistant; Rochelle Oliver - Betty; Jean Passanante - Rose; Robyn Reeves - Job Applicant; Marisa Smith; Maggie Task - Evelyn; Deborah Taylor - Receptionist; Madeleine Lee Gilford - Supermarket Customer
Credit
John Sayles - Director, John Sayles - Editor, Mason K. Daring - Composer (Music Score), Thomas Brandau - Musical Direction/Supervision, Frank Coleman - Camera Operator, Austin de Besche - Cinematographer, Maggie Renzi - Producer, Jeffrey Nelson - Producer, Thomas Brandau - Sound/Sound Designer, Fred Burnham - Sound/Sound Designer, John Sayles - Screenwriter
Lianna (Linda Griffiths) is the wife of a college professor teaching film and media at a University in a small to midsized town in New Jersey, and the mother of two children. In an attempt to give her husband more freedom - at his request - and cure her boredom in being a housewife, she takes a child psychology class with her friend Sandy.
Becoming more involved in the class and interacting with the female professor, she realizes she has a crush on the instructor, Ruth. Ruth invites Lianna over to her home for dinner and they talk into the night, Lianna explaining that she was a graduate student at one time who married the professor. They eventually sleep together and begin an affair, complicated by Lianna's husband's affair with one of his students. Lianna expresses interest in leaving her husband for Ruth, but Ruth backs away, warning Lianna that living with another woman would jeopardize her career as a child psychologist - and she has a partner in another city.
Lianna leaves her husband after a particularly ugly fight to live alone for the first time in years. Lianna visits a lesbian bar and attempts to connect with other lesbians through a string of affairs to explore her new identity. The film explores her loneliness, her changing relationships with her children, and her new relationship with Sandy, who shocked at Lianna's revelations at first, begins to slowly accept it and support Lianna.
The staff at Variety (magazine) magazine gave the film a positive review and wrote, "John Sayles again uses a keen intelligence and finely tuned ear to tackle the nature of friendship and loving in Lianna...Paced by Griffiths' excellent pivotal performance, the film is marked by fine acting overall, particularly Hallaren as the catalytic lover scared off by the intensity of Griffiths' feelings; DeVries as the acerbic, insecure academic mate; Jo Henderson as the retroactively frightened best girlfriend; and Jesse Solomon as the wise-beyond-years pubescent son. Sayles himself appears to good effect as a supportive friend."[2]
Film critic Glenn Erickson wrote, "The acting is exemplary. Canadian Linda Griffiths has worked mostly in television since this film, and the excellent Jane Hallaren's upward progress waned after a couple of promising parts. One has to make the unpleasant association that playing lesbians in Lianna earned them respect but more likely than not put invisible limits on their commercial careers."[3]
Criticf Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat wrote, "The screenplay by John Sayles is both congenial and wise...Many such scenes are handled with just the right touch. Viewers are sure to find much to savor in these moral and emotional confrontations Lianna muses upon love, friendship, and camaraderie in a fresh but unspectacular way. It is an appealing movie worth experiencing."[4]
