Disappointment for a huge fan!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I am not a lesbian, or even a female, but I found the movie to be poignantly thrilling. I think far too much is made of ... what? Novelty? I recall a passage in the George Orwell's book Nineteen-Eighty-four in which on one tryst Winston observes a peasant woman hanging out laundry and singing an old ditty that women must have sung for millenniums. Some things need to be re-experienced again and again. Love is Mount Fuji, described by thousands of Haiku poets and still begging to be once more described. Critics don't seem to know this. That's why the book and movie Love Story made the critics look like the insulated stuffed shirts they are. Eloise's Lover presents first love in a heart-wrenching, soul- searching, suspense-loaded manner that artists should all emulate. The flashback technique in the movie kept my mind and emotions on edge. I could not sleep for several nights wondering what if ....

This Catalan-Spanish teen lesbian movie very much anticipates the later Cannes-winning French film "Blue is the Warmest Color". Like the later film, it is about a sexually confused girl in her late teens who becomes involved with an older female artist who is much more of a committed lesbian. This results here though in tragedy as the heroine begins the movie in a coma after an accident and the rest of the movie is told in flashbacks.In America movies like this are called "gay interest", which implies--unfortunately accurately in many cases--that they may not hold much interest for anyone else who is NOT female and gay. But then again, many lesbians might justifiably scoff at some other "lesbian" movies like "Room in Rome" which seem a lot more interested in hot girl-on-girl action than in seriously portraying believable lesbian relationships. Even "Blue is the Warmest Color" fell victim to this latter criticism by people who couldn't see beyond the 15 minutes of hot sex scenes to consider the REST of the three-hour long movie. This film though is more immune to that criticism since there is really only one graphic lesbian scene near the end of the movie, long after most horny frat-boy types would have lost interest. Most of the movie is fairly believable if somewhat pedestrian female romance. The best scene by far is the startlingly filmed night swimming scene where the lovers break into the university pool after hours. This scene is so beautifully filmed and lit, you perhaps won't question why they turned on all these lights if they weren't supposed to be in the pool. This scene really transcends the rest of the movie and eventually returns later as a metaphoric image for the heroine's deep and perhaps irreversible coma.The coma plot is perhaps a little melodramatic and reminiscent of trite Hollywood crap like "If I Stay", but that is perhaps an unfair criticism since this movie came out years earlier. Despite the melodrama though, this is not nearly as dramatically compelling as "Blue is the Warmest Color" (and is also only about half the length). Diana Gomez, as the young university student, and Ariadna Cabrol, as the older artist, are both muy pretty girls with beautiful bodies even if they're not nearly as strong of actresses as Adele Exarchopolous and Lea Seydoux in "Blue" (but they also both have a lot more nude scenes than than Chloe Moretz in "If I Stay"). Some individual scenes are very impressive, but the movie as a whole is bit slight and rather cliché. But it also matters what you choose to compare it to. It is worth seeing at least.

Lots to like about this movie. The women are beautiful. Love the Catalan language and Barcelona scenery. I liked the main character Asia, and the free spirited Eloise.I thought the ending however was overly dramatic. I also thought Asia's reaction to her first experience with Eloise was 30 years in the past. Appropriate for those of my generation perhaps but young people now are much more sexually open. I would have liked more about her relationship with her father and her overbearing, manipulative mother. The movie was superficially pleasing but ultimately lacking in much body or substance. It needed another layer of complexity with the main characters. I would watch it again, if only for the women and to hear Catalan in a movie.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***Look I love lesbian films, being one myself, but I am very tired of this plot. This film contains nothing original. It's not a happy 'coming out' film by any stretch of the imagination. With quotes like "It made me feel dirty" and "that's disgusting" when referring to lesbian sexuality - my enthusiasm waned a tad. The other main flaw of this film is the poor editing. Some scenes just don't fit, and are completely out of context. Especially the ending. She's dead right?The film does have some good qualities, mostly the two main leads, but its poor fodder for any type of film goer. If you want sad traumatic lesbian film - go see a classic like "The Killing of Sister George" or "The Fox".