Claire of the Moon

No doubt considered progressive in 1992, Nicole Conn's Claire of the Moon is a talky film about gender roles, lesbianism, and love, with worthy and provocative personal politics buried in a visually ugly and predictably constructed story. A promiscuous straight author (Trisha Todd) rooms with a strident lesbian psychologist (Karen Trumbo) at a coastal Oregon writer's retreat. At first they snipe at each other like a distaff odd couple, but soon their growing friendship and attraction prompts one pretentious conversation after another as they try to understand their differing lifestyles. While the discussions are periodically interesting, writer-director Conn stages them all with the same static, bland style, and despite beautiful ocean backdrops, the film mostly stays inside colorless cabins. For a movie purportedly about love and passion, Claire of the Moon consistently chooses cold intellect over genuine emotion in its two leads, while the supporting roles--other aspiring writers at the retreat--are played as unintentional caricatures. This 10th anniversary two-disc Collector's Edition contains a commentary by Conn and producer Pamela Kuri as well as 90 minutes of behind-the-scenes and "making of" featurettes. Not recommended. (D. Fienberg)