Lost and Delirious (2001) starring Piper Perabo, Jessica Paré, Mischa Barton, Jackie Burroughs, Mimi Kuzyk, Graham Greene, Emily VanCamp, Amy Stewart directed by Léa Pool Movie Review

Lost and Delirious (2001)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Mischa Barton in Lost and Delirious (2001)

It Got Lost When it Went Delirious

It feels like your beating heart being ripped out from your chest when all consuming love comes crashing down and leaves you in emotional turmoil as you struggle to deal with being discarded by the wayside. That is what "Lost and Delirious" should be about, it should be about two girls at an all girl's boarding school who are in love but social expectations cause this gut wrenching heart break. And for the first half it is, but then it goes all psycho as we watch one of these young women consumed by love spiralling into irrational behaviour, frightening irrational behaviour.

After her father remarries Mary Bedford (Mischa Barton) finds herself dispatched to an all girls boarding school where she shares a room with the parentless Paulie (Piper Perabo - Coyote Ugly) and rich girl Tori (Jessica Paré). Not long after settling in she discovers that Tori and Paulie are in fact lovers, secretly sharing their bed and are deep in love. That is until Tori's sister Allison (Emily VanCamp) walks in to the room one morning and discovers them naked in bed together. Fearful of what others will think Tori makes out that Paulie is some form of sexual predator and purposefully seeks out to have sex with a boy, flaunting it in front of everyone especially Paulie. It leads to Paulie descending in to some irrational behaviour as she can't live without Tori.

Jessica Paré and Piper Perabo in Lost and Delirious (2001)

In truth "Lost and Delirious" is a frustrating movie because all is going well and then it crashes by becoming over the top. The entire first half is nicely played out through Mary's eyes as she becomes aware of the love between Paulie and Tori and after her own shattered life she takes comfort in being close to two people so much in love. Yes that does mean there is lesbian action in this movie, but it wouldn't feel believable without it as it is very clear from the start that Paulie is a passionate, foot to the floor young woman who is confident in her opinions.

But come the second half it takes a wrong turn, not as in what happens when Tori fearful of what would happen if her parents found out denies her love for Paulie. Nope I am on about how extreme Paulie becomes in her reaction to Paulie denying her love for her it is too much. From quoting Shakespeare to thinking she is an Eagle it borders on becoming a movie about a psycho and that is wrong as it takes away from the underlying story about all consuming love no matter what sex you are.

It is a shame that "Lost and Delirious" ends up going over the top because alongside a good message it also features some good performances most notably Piper Perabo's captivating performance as Paulie. I many not like how extreme the character of Paulie becomes but Perabo sells it, you can't take your eyes off of her because she makes the characters passionate and convincing in her obsessional love. Perabo's performance is what makes the movie watchable right until the end even when it becomes OTT but the other performances are just as good with Jessica Paré impressing as the callous Tori whilst Mischa Barton has a quiet sensitivity about her as Mary.

What this all boils down to is that "Lost and Delirious" had it in it to be a truly great movie about obsessional love but in trying to be epically romantic it goes over the top with all the Shakespearean style dialogue and completely irrational behaviour.


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