19 Sep 2006

Imagine Me and You

Director: Ol Parker

Starring: Piper Perabo, Lena Headey, Matthew Goode, Celia Imrie

Release: 2006-09-19

It's Brokeback Mountain meets Runaway Bride meets Notting Hill meets The L-Word. Or Four Weddings and a Funeral gone Sapphic. Whatever you want to compare this to, Imagine Me and You is one British romantic comedy with a difference our kind of difference.

Set in London, Piper Perabo plays a lovely young bride who is walking down the aisle towards her groom (Matthew Goode) on her wedding day, when she catches sight of the stunningly beautiful wedding florist (the truly stunning Lena Headey). It is a bolt-from-the-sky moment, and she falls for her instantly.

Soon after, Piper's marriage to Matthew turns into the Brokeback kind, as she cannot get Lena out of her mind. She finds various opportunities and excuses to see Lena, and their little friendship gradually turns into an affair. Hallelujah!

Though all these seem like ingredients for a tragedy (they would certainly be, in the hands of Ang Lee!), writer-director Ol Parker's film is ostensibly a romantic comedy. Any potential hurt and tears arising from the cheating wife scenario is converted into farce and comedy, as if a woman leaving her new husband for another woman is the most natural thing in the world.

Realism is hardly anyone's concern here, since Imagine Me and You is striving to be the fantasy fulfilment film that lesbians are waiting for. After all, which dyke can resist the idea of converting a beautiful (supposedly) straight bride into a Sapphic sister, especially when she looks like Piper Perabo? Thankfully, the comedy does have moments of humour, tenderness and delight, thanks to the charms of lead actors. (Lena Headey, it must be said, should be better known than she is now. She is undeniably beautiful and talented.)

Needless to say, it is a must-see for all you girls.