Review: Cracks
Tags: bisexual, Cracks, Cracks Review, Eva Green, gay, GAZE 2010, Juno Temple, lesbian, Queer, Transgender, transsexual, Women 
Showing as part of the GAZE festival, Cracks is the story of adults acting like kids and kids trying to act like adults. One thing it ain’t is lesbian, so its inclusion in the festival programme seems odd.
Miss G (bottom right) is a teacher in a really rather awfully spiffing English boarding school in the 1930′s. She is gorgeous, sophisticated and all of the girls adore her. Some more than others, as many have crushes (or cracks) on her. One such pupil is Di, who is also the captain of the school’s diving team and head prefect. Di expects everyone to heed her word and lavishes in the attention Miss G gives her.
Enter the fly to the ointment. Fiamma is a Spanish aristocrat, a gorgeous young lady who will mature into a stunning woman. She is well-read, well-travelled and has none of the childish ways of the other girls. She’s neither bitchy nor does she act superior to the other girls, even though in every superficial way she is. Di immediately sees a pretender to her crown and endeavours to make her life hell. To make matters worse for all involved Miss G falls for Fiamma in a big way.
It turns out, however, that Miss G is less than meets the eye. She’s living in a world of her own making; speaking about travels she’s read as if they’re her own, terrified of leaving the school she’s lived at since she was a girl. She’s the child trying to be popular and cool with students which are just pieces in er play. She falls for Fiamma because she is exactly who Miss G wishes she was; exactly who she thinks she is, in that messed-up head of hers.
When Fiamma sees through her facade, Miss G starts to come apart. She forces her ‘attentions’ on the young girl who is passed-out drunk. Even with the consent of the young person, this is wrong, but without it, it’s a whole other level of wrong. So is Miss G a lesbian? If she is, she’s another in a long line of crazy women forcing themselves on young, unsuspecting girls. In my opinion, a list we should have a big line under now, than you very much.
Cracks isn’t that bad, the acting is excellent, especially from Juno Temple who plays Di, the villain and hero in equal measure. Eva Green is luminous as Miss G and I know I would’ve been in love with her had she been my teacher.
Like all lesbians to be avoided, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
- Cracks is on in The Lighthouse on Sunday 1st of August at 2.30pm. Tickets are €8
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Such a downer to read a negative review after the GAZE weekend so far –and I haven’t seen the film so can’t agree or disagree- But it prompts an important question of what IS a lesbian film? What representations do we want to see of our lives on the screen? How many films need to be made, say, until we can tolerate a representation like Judy Dench’s character in Notes on a Scandal- another not-lesbian film- and not recoil in anger because we KNOW not every lesbian life is thwarted, repressed and bitter- nor do they need to be.. and we battle daily with a world that DOESN’T know that! If we have one film with a lesbian character in a calendar year, it’s a problem if that character isn’t nuanced, compex, realistic- identifiable- if we have 50 or 100, it’s less so.
For what it’s worth, I think Gaze gives us a very valuable space to explore these questions.. I meet the same people (and new people!) at Gaze year after year that I never run into in the interim… I’ve seen three films so far and all have been stimulating- and one, The Topp Twins, extraordinarily moving, profound and entertaining. Amazing and such a privilege to see these films with an all-ages lgbt (and friends) audience… who have their own histories, lives, stories- you can tell when a particular line strike a chord by knowing laughter, guffaws, giggles or a crowd that spontaneously clap at a first (at last!!!) open declaration of desire.
Spoilers alert!
I finally got to watch this film on DVD the other day – great film, but it is and it isn’t a lesbian film, I reckon: from the young characters’ point of view, there may be an element of lesbianity; but from the point of view of Miss G, she’s just a weird paedophile.
There ends my critical analysis of this film.
: )
(Notwithstanding the character she played, Eva Greene was FABULOUS in this film, by the way. Hawt!)
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