"Go Fish," a talked-about effort at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, is being sold as a "lesbian comedy." But the humor here is very soft, if not nonexistent, and the film is plagued with unfortunate weaknesses.
A very low-budget effort, shot in black and white, "Go Fish" features a largely non-professional cast - and there are too many scenes where the players' lack of acting ability shows. The result is a labored quality.
Worse, however, are co-writer/ director Rose Troche's self-consciously artsy touches, in the form of visual imagery, amplified sound, pretentious verbal banter and a camera that won't hold still - all of which distracts from the story.
The story is simple enough - young Max (Guinevere Turner, the most appealing member of the cast, who also co-wrote the screenplay) is looking for true love, and when her roommate Kia (T. Wendy McMillen) fixes her up with an old friend, Ely (V.S. Brodie), the bumpy road to romance begins.
At its heart, this is simply a Generation-X romantic comedy steeped in irony and angst, along the lines of "Bodies, Rest & Motion" and "Reality Bites" . . . although the independent "Slacker," or Spike Lee's first movie "She's Gotta Have It," might be closer in spirit. The main difference here, of course, is that the characters are lesbians.
With an insider viewpoint, "Go Fish" should be a lively, provocative piece of filmmaking. But instead it just gets more dull as it goes along, with characters who talk and talk and talk, yet never utter dialogue that is nearly as witty, amusing or insightful as they think it is.
"Go Fish" is likely to be embraced by the gay community, simply because it does have that insider view, and because gay women are an overlooked group, even in gay cinema. But it is not likely to cross over into the mainstream.
"Go Fish" is not rated but would doubtless get an R for sex, nudity, profanity, vulgarity and violence.