WMNF-FM The Women's Show May 1, 1993 Film Review of "Three of Hearts" By Linda Lopez McAlister There's a new book out about lesbians and gays in film; it's called THE LAVENDER SCREEN, by Boze Hadleigh (Citadel Press, 1993), and it reminds us once again (as did Vito Russo's earlier CELLULOID CLOSET) just how grim has been the history of the portrayal of gays and lesbians in mainstream Hollywood films. With few exceptions they're not there at all or, if they are, they're evil and/or miserable and die before the end of the film. So I approached "Three of Hearts," Hollywood's newest entry with explicitly lesbian characters with a large grain of salt that grew to pebble size as I watched the opening credits and saw that the film was produced, directed, and written by men. I was prepared to see egregious stereotypes of lesbians and prepared to see the male lead, Joe (played by William Baldwin) walk off with one of them in the final shot while the "more lesbian" of the women sulks in the background as happened in "Personal Best." Imagine my surprise when that didn't happen--at least not the way it would have in Hollywood of yore. For one thing the film starts out rather than ends with the break up of a lesbian couple, or, more accurately a lesbian/bisexual woman couple (played by Kelly Lynch and Sherilynn Fenn, respectively). But it's made very clear that the sexual orientation of the women per se is not what's at issue in the breakup; the bi woman is not rethinking her sexuality or denying her love for her partner. She's just needing to get out of that relationship and be alone for a while. Connie, a lesbian nurse who is the one being dumped, is taken by surprise and is badly shaken by the break up. She had planned to take her lover to a cousin's wedding and come out to her family in just a few days, having already told them she's bringing her "fiance" with her. At the suggestion of one of her patients she hires Joe, a man who earns his living as a male escort (i.e. gigolo) to go with her to the wedding and, of course, everybody loves her "fiance." He turns out to be in big trouble with a mobster so Connie lets him stay at her place as a hideout and they develop a friendship. Joe boasts that he can"get any woman, any age, any time," and this gives Connie an idea. She hires him to make her ex fall in love with him and then dump her so she'll come running back to Connie. Which he proceeds to do, posing as a college student in the writing class that she, a graduate student at NYU, is teaching. Needless to say, things go awry when Joe loses his "professional detachment" and really falls in love. It won't do for me to give you any more of a plot summary because this is a film that comes under the heading of "screwball comedy" and the plot really won't bear much close scrutiny. Nevertheless, I found the film to be one of the more lesbian- friendly mainstream films I've seen. At last weekend's March on Washington some of the biggest cheers from the crowd were for a group called "Straight Up" -- straight men marching in support of and solidarity with gay men and lesbians. While Joe is clearly a heterosexual man, his friendship with the lesbian Connie is as important a relationship to him and to the film as is his romantic relationship. In fact the resolution of the narrative in the last reel--the "happy ending"--is not based on his getting the woman he loves (that's left up in the air) but on his restoring his friendship with Connie. A welcome twist. So, if you're up for a light romantic comedy (with language and situations adult enough to win it an R rating), with likeable characters and a lesbian-friendly attitude (though no lesbian sex scenes) I think you might find this quite an enjoyable film. I saw another lesbian film while I was up north the past week a documentary entitled "Last Call at Maud's." It's great and I hope the planners of this year's gay and lesbian film festival are listening. It's one they need to get. For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film.