Though well intentioned and unobjectionable, Bloomington is undone by a fatal lack of believable conflict. For the most part, this film is as emotionally placid as an inland sea with flashes of hurt feelings and argument jammed in out of nowhere. I didn't sit through the movie just waiting for it to be over. My thoughts were more like "Okay, where is this thing going?" Followed after a long while by "Wait
that's where it was going?" There are also several stray threads scattered through the story, making it appear as though these filmmakers were never able to take all the ideas in their heads and fully transfer them to the screen. Such an amateurish quality to the storytelling prevents it from fully engaging the viewer, but the very appealing presence of Allison McAtee and an overall feeling of earnest goodwill also keeps it from ever being annoying.
Jackie (Sarah Stouffer) is a former child star who's gone away to college. She almost immediately hooks up with the scariest professor on campus, Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee). Though she makes an imperious first impression, Stark turns out to be a solicitous lover and an almost motherly companion to Jackie and they blow through flirting to full blown relationship as quickly as The Flash dons the costume he keeps compressed in his ring. Then Jackie gets an offer to be the lead in a movie version of her old series, which results in Stark turning into a rather large bitch. Jackie doesn't return the favor, but does get all bitchy with her seemingly inoffensive mother. Then Jackie and Stark make up but realize they can't be together. Yeah, that's how it ends.
I don't know if writer/director Fernanda Cordoso was unconsciously working out any mother issues with this script, but the way Jackie's relationships with Stark and with her mother flip from sweetness and light to nasty and dark neither fit nor are justified by what's going on in the film. She could merely have realized that her greeting card of a screenplay needed some bite. If that's the case, it comes off like it was all tossed in during a last minute rewrite.
Bloomington also has an awful lot of makeout scenes without managing to have one legitimate sex scene. There are a couple of times where it's indicated that someone is doing something below the waist which the viewer can't see, but that's about it. It's odd because the lack of conflict in the story would fit if this were a classy attempt at erotica. The lack of any bare flesh or sensual writhing therefore only draws attention to the paucity of plot.
Though Sarah Stouffer is technically playing the main character, Alison McAtee owns this motion picture. Her performance is intelligent, tender and very sexy. Unfortunately, that does make it all the more noticeable when Stark gets pounded down with the Almighty Plot Hammer in the last half of the movie. I can't imagine anyone comes away from Bloomington caring more about Jackie than they do about Stark. And the young woman/older woman lesbian dynamic here is distinctly different from what you'd get with a young woman/older man relationship, giving you something to focus on when the narrative flags.
This is a generic coming of age romance. There's been umpteen heterosexual versions of this, so I guess there should be room for a homosexual rendition. Like the straight stuff, though, after you've seen one of these you never really need to watch another.
Jackie (Sarah Stouffer) is a former child star who's gone away to college. She almost immediately hooks up with the scariest professor on campus, Catherine Stark (Allison McAtee). Though she makes an imperious first impression, Stark turns out to be a solicitous lover and an almost motherly companion to Jackie and they blow through flirting to full blown relationship as quickly as The Flash dons the costume he keeps compressed in his ring. Then Jackie gets an offer to be the lead in a movie version of her old series, which results in Stark turning into a rather large bitch. Jackie doesn't return the favor, but does get all bitchy with her seemingly inoffensive mother. Then Jackie and Stark make up but realize they can't be together. Yeah, that's how it ends.
I don't know if writer/director Fernanda Cordoso was unconsciously working out any mother issues with this script, but the way Jackie's relationships with Stark and with her mother flip from sweetness and light to nasty and dark neither fit nor are justified by what's going on in the film. She could merely have realized that her greeting card of a screenplay needed some bite. If that's the case, it comes off like it was all tossed in during a last minute rewrite.
Bloomington also has an awful lot of makeout scenes without managing to have one legitimate sex scene. There are a couple of times where it's indicated that someone is doing something below the waist which the viewer can't see, but that's about it. It's odd because the lack of conflict in the story would fit if this were a classy attempt at erotica. The lack of any bare flesh or sensual writhing therefore only draws attention to the paucity of plot.
Though Sarah Stouffer is technically playing the main character, Alison McAtee owns this motion picture. Her performance is intelligent, tender and very sexy. Unfortunately, that does make it all the more noticeable when Stark gets pounded down with the Almighty Plot Hammer in the last half of the movie. I can't imagine anyone comes away from Bloomington caring more about Jackie than they do about Stark. And the young woman/older woman lesbian dynamic here is distinctly different from what you'd get with a young woman/older man relationship, giving you something to focus on when the narrative flags.
This is a generic coming of age romance. There's been umpteen heterosexual versions of this, so I guess there should be room for a homosexual rendition. Like the straight stuff, though, after you've seen one of these you never really need to watch another.