Whistle Stopper - Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Jess, the protagonist, is everyone's hero. She is in fact an ur-hero. She speaks not only to lesbians and gay men who have faced rejection, but to ALL people who have had to find the courage to be who they are and do what they want to do despite the immediate people and circumstances that prevent, forbid, oppress or threaten them from doing so.

The cast displays stellar performances: Geraldine McEwan is unmatched in her portrayal of the zealous Bible-thunping mother. She stabs naked fear and loathing into your heart from the very first scene in which she towers over the 5-year-old Jess and grills her with biblical questions, followed by a smack on the head. Yet somehow you come to respect and admire the fervent tenacity to which she clings to her system of beliefs. Melanie, Jess' first love, is the type of girl you would expect to find in a fairy tale: dripping with innocence and sweet as honey, the perfect poison apple to set up a broken heart. The preacher who leads this flock to which Jess and her mom belong is incredible as a despicable British version of Jimmy Swaggart.

The most striking aspect of the film for me is how the director has woven such teasing, subtle and yet insanely hilarious (British!) humor into a movie that has scenes so painful that it hurts to watch them. Every time I see this movie, I get a little more humor out of it than the previous time, and it makes me love the film all the more, even though it's intent as a whole is certainly not to amuse- that is purely incidental. Yet on second thought, maybe it isn't. Maybe the humor makes us appreciate the somber theme of the movie all the more each time we see it. And we admire Jess all the more, and the ending all the more because of it. It just gets better and better!