Themes: Boarding School Life, Teachers and Students, Unrequited Love
Main Cast: Piper Perabo, Jessica Paré, Mischa Barton, Jackie Burroughs, Graham Greene
Release Year: 2001
Country: CA
Run Time: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Three schoolgirls learn about the joys, sorrows, and varieties of love in this drama based on the novel The Wives of Bath by Susan Swan. Mary (Mischa Barton) is a quiet girl who is still recovering from the death of her mother. Mary's father and new stepmother, who are blind to her emotional needs, send her away to an all-girls college, where Mary becomes fast friends with her new roommates, sophisticated Paulie (Piper Perabo) and worldly Tory (Jessica Pare). But Mary soon discovers that Paulie and Tory are more than just friends, and have begun to pursue a passionate physical relationship. While initially puzzled by their lesbian leanings, Mary remains close friends with both of them; Tory's sister is not so open minded, however, and threatens to tell their parents about Tory's affair. Afraid and confused, Tory quickly breaks off her romance with Paulie and takes up with Jake (Luke Kirby), a student at a nearby boys' school. Paulie is heartbroken, and desperately struggles to win Tory back by writing her epic-length poems on the subject of love and loss. Paulie also finds a metaphor for her wounded heart as she finds an injured bird in the woods and struggles to restore it to health; in addition, she discovers an understanding soul in the person of Fay Vaughn (Jackie Burroughs), one of her teachers. Lost and Delirious was the first English-language feature for Québecois filmmaker Lea Pool; the film received its world premiere at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Lea Pool's first English-language feature bears the mark of many Canadian features before it in its strange, at times haunting, examination of unrequited love. The film falters when it gets too earnest about both its characters and its metaphors, but as pungently scripted by Judith Thompson and helmed with clarity by director Pool, it genuinely feels unlike any other film recently made about teenage girls, never bringing its story down to the level of many sophomoric American comedies. Piper Perabo, miles away from her leading performance in Coyote Ugly, gives a striking portrayal of a scorned teenager, and her delirium reaches a perversely fascinating peak in her later scenes when her character's mental instability threatens to spiral out of control. The film shares the moody virtuosity of Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, another movie that never sugarcoated its acidic tale of "lost girls" (a phrase utilized here as well), but however one looks at it, Lost and Delirious is unlike almost any movie out there, and that alone makes it distinctive and memorable. The feature premiered to enthusiastic response at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
