The film opens at a church, where Reverend Freeman Beebie
(Matt Conlon) speaks of faith, and then about Lou Bava and his family. “His
son, Lou Jr., is a glowing example of this town’s most precious asset, our
young people.” The film cuts to Lou Jr. bullying an altar boy outside of
the church, so we see just what a fine young man he is. Reverend Beebie then
talks about Mike Ward, the current mayor, “a formidable campaigner,” and
directly asks for contributions to Bava’s campaign, telling the congregation
that there is a special collection basket in the rectory. So no separation of
church and state here. In fact, it turns out that Reverend Beebie is Bava’s
running mate, his deputy mayor.
Outside the church after the service three women have
gathered, and one says, “Stan Smick is an asshole, and I hate those awful
children.” This is the first line that makes me laugh, and reminds me of
those wonderful moments that John Waters includes in his films. This trio of
women provides a running commentary on affairs for a while. And seriously,
they’re like characters from a John Waters film. The problem is they disappear
from the movie partway through, and they are sorely missed, for they kept the
tone light, and were sort of the voice of the audience. Another problem is that
Stan Smick and his children hardly play a role at all in the film. It’s
difficult to see just what his part is in everything, and why he’s mentioned so
early on.
Anyway, Lorraine is married to Reverend Beebie, having an
affair with Lou Bava (Steven Bauer), and previously had some sort of affair
with Mike Ward (who sometimes is Michelle). Also, she’s bisexual and so… Well,
it seems she has an affair with most everyone in the film, though there doesn’t
seem to be any love in any of it. It begs the question, of course, of why she
bothered marrying a Methodist minister. But this film leaves us with a lot of
questions, and characters’ motivations seem farthest from the screenwriter’s
mind. I mean, really, why is Bava even running for mayor? We can assume it’s to
facilitate some criminal activity (after all, he’s Italian, so the film colors
him as an organized crime type), but it’s never really mentioned.
Though Mike Ward is married, he keeps appearing to
Lorraine, telling her “It’s not too late.” Apparently, he wants to get
back together with her. He spends part of his time as Michelle, hanging out in
a club that has a boxing ring in the back. Lorraine is shown boxing a
transvestite early on. Why? Who knows? Anyway, it seems that Lorraine was more
interested in Michelle than Mike, and there certainly could have been an interesting
story there, but this film refuses to tell it.
There are some good moments. Like when Bava sees a
television spot in support of Ward that lists Bava’s accomplishments. “His
juvenile rap sheet alone reads like a dime novel,” the voice on the commercial
tells us. “Breaking and entering, grand theft auto, assault and battery,
menacing his gym teacher with a zip gun.” It’s that last bit that made me
laugh. And the best line of all in the film belongs to Felicity, who describes
Lou Jr. this way: “Undisturbed by evolution.” The problem is that
Felicity is a largely pointless character (though I love her fur coat).
There are other useless characters, and several short
scenes that leave us wondering, “Why?” At a few points, the film cuts to Rudy
Ray (Jimmie Walker) performing at a club. As happy as I was to see Jimmie
Walker, his role is completely pointless and just this side of embarrassing.
There is also Marcus, a bartender/campaign doctor that Lorraine calls in to
help with the Bava/Beebie campaign. Bava’s hoodlum friends don’t like the
commercial he’s created and threaten him if he doesn’t help Bava win. Again,
why does Bava even want to be mayor? And then Marcus is arrested for soliciting
an undercover cop. But what does that have to do with anything? Remember Stan
Smick? At one point he hires a man to back his car into Reverend Beebie. Why?
And all that results from that is Reverend Beebie having to use crutches the
rest of the film. The car hitting him is never even mentioned. So again, why?
And really, the entire film leaves me wondering, “Why?”
Sweet Lorraine was written and directed by Chris
Frieri, and is scheduled to be released on DVD on April 23, 2015 through Garden
Thieves Pictures. The DVD contains no special features.
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