It's better than it has a right to be.
Two women -- Moore and Page -- fall in love and move into a house in Ocean County in southern New Jersey. Moore is a detective on the police force and Page works as a mechanic. Well, southern New Jersey is not the New York metropolitan area nor a raffish suburb of Philadelphia. It's not exactly hick country either, not since the highways made it possible to commute to the cities, but it still retains some of its quaint charm. Ocean County includes the pine barrens, a sandy country of stunted pines, prickly pear cactus, and copper colored shallow creeks, a broad portion of leftover coastal plain. It's the only state home of the New Jersey pine snake (Putuophis m.melanoleucus), a tough specimen of which I was happy and proud to catch and release.
Where was I? I do wish you'd stop interrupting my train of thought. Pretty soon I'll offer to show you where I store my specimens. Yes, so anyway Moore and Page have a happy household and eventually Moore's partner on the police force, Michael Shannon, comes around to accepting this unusual ménage. But then it is discovered that Moore has incurable lung cancer. Despite treatment she gets sicker and sicker and decides to leave her police pension to Page. Uh-oh. The couple aren't man and wife, just "domestic partners." Moore's employers at the police department are uncertain about the deal so the matter is referred to the Ocean County Board of Selectmen or Aldermen or Freeholders or whatever they are. They demur.
The rest of the movie is taken up with Moore's search for what she calls equality, not special privilege, but the case is sensationalized by the media and all kinds of people with all kinds of motives show up at the Board meetings. Among the most impressive of these visitors is Steve Carrell as a hyperenergetic New York gay Jew who prances around leading chants and calling everyone "Sweetheart."
Nothing in the movie comes as much of a surprise. There is anger and confusion. A few locals support the cause, the Selectmen are afraid it will cost them votes to hand the pension over to Page, Shannon is stalwart in his support, and sooner or later the anticipated happens. The direction by Peter Sollett is unobtrusive.
Moore gives an excellent performance as usual. She sickens credibly. I groan with delight whenever Ellen Page speaks. There is no other such offhand voice, no matter what the subject. But, alas, she's not given much chance to exercise her acting chops. For most of the movie she trudges around wearing a face like the mask of tragedy, as if she'd just been told they stopped serving breakfast at eleven. It never changes. If this were fiction and her name could be made up, it would be Delores not Stacie. Michael Shannon is surprisingly effective. He's beetle-browed and hardly handsome but he brings an everyman quality to his roles precisely because he doesn't seem to be an actor. His underplaying added considerable power to his role as a schizophrenic in "Take Shelter."
I said initially that it was better than it had a right to be. What I meant was that it wasn't sicklied over with the ghoulish cast of excessive piteousness. Think what could have been done with this adult flick if it had appeared as a drama on Lifetime Movie Network.
Two women -- Moore and Page -- fall in love and move into a house in Ocean County in southern New Jersey. Moore is a detective on the police force and Page works as a mechanic. Well, southern New Jersey is not the New York metropolitan area nor a raffish suburb of Philadelphia. It's not exactly hick country either, not since the highways made it possible to commute to the cities, but it still retains some of its quaint charm. Ocean County includes the pine barrens, a sandy country of stunted pines, prickly pear cactus, and copper colored shallow creeks, a broad portion of leftover coastal plain. It's the only state home of the New Jersey pine snake (Putuophis m.melanoleucus), a tough specimen of which I was happy and proud to catch and release.
Where was I? I do wish you'd stop interrupting my train of thought. Pretty soon I'll offer to show you where I store my specimens. Yes, so anyway Moore and Page have a happy household and eventually Moore's partner on the police force, Michael Shannon, comes around to accepting this unusual ménage. But then it is discovered that Moore has incurable lung cancer. Despite treatment she gets sicker and sicker and decides to leave her police pension to Page. Uh-oh. The couple aren't man and wife, just "domestic partners." Moore's employers at the police department are uncertain about the deal so the matter is referred to the Ocean County Board of Selectmen or Aldermen or Freeholders or whatever they are. They demur.
The rest of the movie is taken up with Moore's search for what she calls equality, not special privilege, but the case is sensationalized by the media and all kinds of people with all kinds of motives show up at the Board meetings. Among the most impressive of these visitors is Steve Carrell as a hyperenergetic New York gay Jew who prances around leading chants and calling everyone "Sweetheart."
Nothing in the movie comes as much of a surprise. There is anger and confusion. A few locals support the cause, the Selectmen are afraid it will cost them votes to hand the pension over to Page, Shannon is stalwart in his support, and sooner or later the anticipated happens. The direction by Peter Sollett is unobtrusive.
Moore gives an excellent performance as usual. She sickens credibly. I groan with delight whenever Ellen Page speaks. There is no other such offhand voice, no matter what the subject. But, alas, she's not given much chance to exercise her acting chops. For most of the movie she trudges around wearing a face like the mask of tragedy, as if she'd just been told they stopped serving breakfast at eleven. It never changes. If this were fiction and her name could be made up, it would be Delores not Stacie. Michael Shannon is surprisingly effective. He's beetle-browed and hardly handsome but he brings an everyman quality to his roles precisely because he doesn't seem to be an actor. His underplaying added considerable power to his role as a schizophrenic in "Take Shelter."
I said initially that it was better than it had a right to be. What I meant was that it wasn't sicklied over with the ghoulish cast of excessive piteousness. Think what could have been done with this adult flick if it had appeared as a drama on Lifetime Movie Network.