Desert Hearts

DESERT HEARTS was quite a trail blazer in 1985 - one of the first mainstream films to deal seriously and sensitively with lesbian characters.  John Sayles had made LIANNA two years earlier but it was not quite as explicit as director Donna Deitsch's film.  Particularly one scene in the final third when Vivian (Helen Shaver) and Cay (Patricia Charbonneau) become intimate.  Let's get that out of the way - it's tasteful and never exploitive.  But yes, explicit.  Far moreso than what had ever been seen in a (relatively) mainstream production.

The film takes place in 1959.  Vivian travels to Reno, Nevada for one of those "quickie" divorces.  She's an English professor at Colombia who likes order in her life.  Perhaps the "still waters" of her "professional" marriage were too suffocating.  Vivian, with her conservative fashions and love of classical music, sticks out quite unfavorably among the simple folks in Reno.  She clashes with the other divorcees at a ranch that caters to such women, doing their six week stays to establish the necessary residency.  But she does find a friend Frances (Audra Lindley), the house mother-type and owner of the ranch.  At the very least, bourbon is an effective equaliizer.

Cay and Frances have a mother/daughter sort of relationship.  Perhaps it too is suffocating.  But Cay is a free spirit spitfire, quite open about her sexual preferences.  Her first appearance in DESERT HEARTS has her speeding backwards in a convertible on a highway, just so there's no mistaking that we know she's a hellion.  It is clear immediately that there is a spark between her and Vivian, whose guard is not easily lowered.  Townspeople will talk.  Some relationships may ultimately suffer.

As you'll note in the last paragraph, I have some quibbles with this movie.  The main one:  the awkward transitions between scenes, and the frequent abruptness of how some scenes conclude.  Some secondary characters are underdeveloped, especially Walter (Alex McArthur) who also lives at the ranch.  He's introduced as a possible Alpha-male-douche-who's-gonna-hit-on-Vivian.  Then we barely see him. Then after a dramatic breakfast scene (which itself seems to come out of nowhere), he runs after Vivian and they begin acting like best (platonic of course) pals.  Nothing in the movie had established this beforehand.  Maybe Deitsch's low budget prevented more scenes.  Or maybe Natalie Cooper's screenplay is to blame? Some of her dialogue also seems overwritten.  I did like the "string of lights around my heart" line though.

But carps aside, DESERT HEARTS is a very worthwhile motion picture. The actresses are all fine, and the movie is an intelligent, heartfelt love story that admirably doesn't feel the need to contrive 180 degree character arcs.  By film's end, Vivian will still prefer order and be ever the sophisticate.  She'll be wiser and perhaps more open in certain ways, but not a mere screenwriter's fantasy.  That's refreshing.

P.S. - Trivia nerds will note the reunion of Lindley with her The Ropers co-star Jeffery Tambor, who is curiously uncredited for this film.