Lost and Delirious Movie Review

When you're an impressionable young gal in prep school, and your roomies figure they'll get it on, well, what are you supposed to do?

Ah, the perils of going to an all-girls school, where lesbianism seems to run rampant. Alas, for poor Mouse (Mischa Barton, who absolutely embodies her character name here, the job of secret-keeper is heavy to bear. It's made all the worse when the roommates split up after Tory (Jessica Paré) decides she can't do the lesbian thing any more after her kid sister walks in on them -- and Paulie (a very young Piper Perabo, Coyote Ugly) will go to any lengths to get her back. Poor Mouse is caught in the middle, but rest assured, there's plenty of time for the girls to cry and talk about, you know, feelings and stuff, when Paulie isn't scheming to get back her gal. There's even a kindly gardener to lend a shoulder to cry on and some fatherly advice.

Based on the novel The Wives of Bath, Lost and Delirious presents characters that are neither lost nor particularly delirious, but this all-woman meditation on Dead Poets Society is reasonably worthwhile. Unlike Poets, the film is single-minded as it follows one story but doesn't really keep the intensity level up high enough to maintain our complete interest. The result is an extremely draggy second act, as Paulie fumes and weeps and vows revenge. Eventually, this comes to a boil (which I won't divulge but which ought to be pretty obvious), but it's way too little, too late. Angst-filled teen girls will likely find this poetic in the vein of Sylvia Plath. The rest of you will find it on the ridiculous side.

Coyotes ugly.