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A Family Affair

-- Video Business, 7/3/2003

Color, NR (mature themes), 100 min., VHS $39.95, DVD $24.95

DVD: director's commentary, director and cast interviews, deleted scenes

Street: July 29, Prebook: June 24

First Run: L, March, 2001 NA

Cast: Helen Lesnick (Mindbender), Erica Schaffer (Three on Match), Michele Greene (TV's L.A. Law),

Barbara Stuart (Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills),

Arlene Golonka (Have a Periwinkle Day)

Director: Helen Lesnick

WOLF VIDEO

Story Line: After being unceremoniously dumped--again--New York Jewish lesbian Rachel (Lesnick) flees to San Diego where her mother helps her in the quest to find Ms. Rightowitz. Rachel eventually falls in love with a chipper WASP (Shaffer), who converts and proposes, bringing on the arrival of Rachel's manipulative ex-girlfriend (Greene).

Bottom Line: Writer/director/star Lesnick brings fun and cosmopolitan quirkiness into A Family Affair. (In an unsurprising, but perfectly effective technique, she opens the film by directly addressing the audience with her appealing wit.) Although Golonka as Lesnik's rainbow flag-wielding mom adds a breath of fresh air on the proceedings, for the most part, the acting is wooden, the banter is forced and the one-dimensional characters work too hard to not be stereotypes. In its fight to play like a traditional love story, Affair makes too many exceptions for the untrusting and insecure relationships between the women. The film was well received in the gay film festival circuit, winning top honors in several cities, but crossover appeal is limited. --Sarika Chawla

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