The past catches up with everyone in a small Jersey town as now Pastor’s wife, Lorraine Beebee (Tatum O’Neal), tries to help her husband’s campaign to be deputy mayor alongside small business owner and small time criminal Lou Bava (Stephen Bauer).
As the campaign progresses and Lorraine tries to weave an inexplicable number of webs with her intentions confusingly strewn from left to right, ghosts from the past including cross-dressing Mayor Ward (Scott William Winters) and Mayoral Candidate Bava’s multiple affairs with running mate Rev. Beebee’s sweet wife Lorraine and daughter Stephanie (Julianne Michelle) come creeping out, though the good pastor never seems to notice. Sweet Lorraine’s selling point is the curiosity of these back stories and the B-movie noir-esque style of it’s delivery with inherent sexual motivation and wholly cynical attitude; yet they’re also undoubtedly it’s downfall.
Simply put it’s confusing and dull. You’re not led to become invested in any characters, it’s plot seems to flip and flap at random and I was never able to grasp Lorraine’s ultimate intentions, but without the joys of interesting discussion. Sweet Lorraine didn’t give the impression of complicated motivation, but simply no motivation except power and excess; Lorraine’s odd boxing career and the fantastical and slightly psychotic ‘club’ that united Lorraine’s past was almost fantastical. Perhaps that was the point, perhaps it was meant to be chaotic strange and catch you unaware; but for me it just didn’t come together, it wasn’t enjoyable. With a strong cast for this type of production I was expecting a lot more. Ironically Tatum O’Neal gives a strong performance as Lorraine, easy to hate and difficult to understand and Matthew Conlon is excellent as the naive Pastor who can’t see anything that’s in front of his face; but good acting can’t hold together a film that has a poor script and is trying too hard to be edgy and innovative.
Expected to be released on April 23rd in the US, I won’t be recommending many people go see this film; it may have it’s niche and may even someday gain cult reverence, but for me it doesn’t work. Sweet Lorraine was a disappointment, unable to capture my attention.
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