Another highly underrated and very talented actress, Marla Gibbs…

Losing Chase

I am sure there are those who love to be seduced and would rather romanticize a serious subject as this one.  Cinematically it is a work of art and the acting is well done.  Otherwise, the story misleads in my opinion.  It misguides the viewer by calling it a lesbian film leading one to think the film is about a lonely desperate housewife who’s self absorbed business oriented husband forces her to seek solace in a mentally and emotionally abandoned college student whose mother also happens to be mentally ill.  It is about mental illness and poor thinking on the part of Chase, Richard and the boys.  It is about recovering from mental illness to some degree but we don’t see this process at all.  We do see a young naive and confused caretaker who is in over her head with an adult woman who isn’t sure of her own sexual preference or is androgynous and unafraid to express the male tendencies, though kissing between parent and child is not unusual and is often part of the bonding between parent and child.  Is Chase merely re-enacting onto Elizabeth what her husband did to her or is she re-enacting what one of her parents did to her?  It borders on child molestation to me, although nothing sexual happens between them but is strongly alluded to and even misperceived by Chase’s oldest son.  Was Chase molested?   Was Elizabeth being molested?  It is clear Elizabeth was in desperate need of parenting since her ill mother was mentally unable to fulfill this need.   Isn’t Elizabeth really developmentally disabled?  Yes.  I would say she is to a degree, depending on details of her own mother’s onset of illness.  To romanticize and misconstrue such desperate needs by a young college student and an adult woman fails the intelligence of the viewing public in my opinion.  It is clear Elizabeth is unconsciously attracted to mentally ill people because of her attachment to her own mother who was unable to provide proper parenting.  We aren’t sure by the end of the film whether she gains awareness of her own tendencies.  Elizabeth is reenacting a life pattern created by something outside both her and her mother.  How can that be romantic?   Does Chase set her up for more mental illness?   Clearly the writer knows nothing about mental illness nor child development.  The film’s negatives outweigh the positives.