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Review

Annabelle (Erin Kelly), the defiant daughter of a senator, arrives at a prestigious Catholic boarding school after being expelled from many others. It’s up to the school’s poetry teacher Simone (Diane Gaidry) to ensure the rebellious teen does not stir up trouble. Brazen and beautiful, the new student quickly turns heads with her striking beauty and clever charm. Fellow student and bad girl, Cat (the fierce Laura Breckenridge, TV’s “Related”), pounces, but her advances are quickly denied because Annabelle’s eyes are focused on a bigger prize -- Simone. She aggressively makes her move in class, dissecting e.e. cummings’ poetry of sexual innuendos and sending Simone’s heart fluttering. The teacher desperately tries to conceal her lust not only because she is an educator, but also because she is suppressing her lesbian past! On a holiday weekend, the student and teacher are the only two remaining on campus. This time they cannot stop their wildest desires. In one moment their sweltering, uninhibited passion illuminates the screen, and in the next, a flurry of guilt unmasks the reality of responsibility. Kelly and Gaidry’s chemistry is mesmerizing, expressing their characters' deepening attraction with stolen glances and the subsequent revelations of their relationship's emotional consequences. Talented writer/director Katherine Brooks brilliantly captures the conflicting emotions of erotic, romantic attraction and the apprehension due to the sexual and spiritual risks involved.

 -- Kelly Burkhardt