Lost and Delirious

"I felt like a tiny grey mouse heading straight for the mouth of a cat," quoth Mary 'Mouse' Bradford (Mischa Barton) as her father drops her off at Perkin's Girls College. Mary's fears are both allayed and justified when she meets her new roommates: the rough and rebellious Pauline 'Paulie' Oster (Piper Perabo), and the sensuously beautiful Victoria 'Tory' Moller (Jessica Paré). Things proceed swimmingly among the three underclasswomen, until the rest of the school discovers what Mary (and any male with a pulse) already knows, that Paulie and Tory are, er, bunk mates. Fearful that word will get back to her parents, Tory suddenly turns Tory, dumping Paulie and quickly shacking up with a local pretty boy. As for the devastated Paulie, she strikes up a curious friendship with an injured black crow until, enervated by the crow's fighting spirit, she begins plotting her revenge. Based on Susan Swan's novel The Wives of Bath, the film starts out rather promisingly. Granted, Judith Thompson's script leaves no banality unturned ("Love is. It just is!"), but the effort is well anchored by its three female leads, and tastefully executed by Canadian helmer Léa Pool. Mid-second act, however, the film ceases to be a tender and sensual coming-of-ager, and turns instead into a lesbian Fatal Attraction. By the time Paulie climbs a college spire, the audience, like this critic, will no doubt be bidding her to jump. A weak optional purchase. (S. C. Sickles)