LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS (Laurie Kahn, U.S.). 84 minutes. Rating: NN
Laurie Kahn wants to rehabilitate the reputation of romance fiction, but though she starts to make a feminist-tinged argument and does include lesbian love stories, she avoids an essential element.
At conventions and book fairs, successful authors explain that writing romance has given women confined to the home a way to make money. Their fans wonder why the genre is sneered at for being unrealistic when no one dismisses Arnold Schwarzenegger films. And one publishing exec makes the important point that the popularity of romance has probably kept the industry alive.
But a movie that doesn’t take a critical look at the content of romance novels, except to extol the virtues of “happily ever after,” has a huge hole.
Apr 25, 9 pm, Isabel Bader Apr 26, 4:15 pm, TIFF 1 May 1, 9:30 pm, Fox
