sharing difference
by Douglas Messerli
Mindy Rae (screenplay), Sarah B. Downey
(director) Platonic Solid / 2013 [20 minutes]
Although he might see some rocky places in their future, they basically
seem to be an affable pair whom some might describe as the perfect couple.
In
the very next scene, we observe the two women in bed making love, a scene with
transmogrifies into Madison and Parker in bed together, Parker explaining that
he simply “can’t,” apparently unable to be aroused enough to partake in sex. “I
want to, I want to, I want to so badly....I don’t why this keeps happening.”
Obviously, they are not the perfect couple. What might be impeding their
relationship?
Of
course, we already know, but they don’t, and it’s painful watching how they
struggle to maintain their “normality” despite obvious signs that something
about them both is that troublesome word, “different.” In this case he simply
begs her patience, “We’ll figure this out,” and they both reconfirm their love
for one another. Madison will be off for a few days on a preview visit to LA.
Parker is at a local bar when he meets the handsome acquaintance, Tyler,
the man behind the jewelry counter in the previous scene. We already recognize
his displacement when Parker notes that his girlfriend has moved to Los Angeles
and explains that “she’s more a friend than anything else.” In any event, the
two have drinks together, a discussion about sexuality where we discover Parker
has still never been with a guy, and a short kissing session. Parker is clearly
ready and willing to move on to the next level of self-acceptance as a
homosexual.
When he returns home Madison is sitting alone, brooding. She explains
that she can’t do “this,” the vague adjective apparently meaning their moving
to Los Angeles together, “getting married, sealing it with a white picket fence
and a family.” She insists that she has to go out “there” alone.
Once more they reconfirm their love, but also, as Madison argues,
realize that despite the love they feel for one another that they are not “in
love” with one another, perhaps making clear the paucity of that word to
express both the deep love we feel for close friends and the love two people
build around a marriage or long term sexual relationship.
The next scene is in a Los Angeles coffee shop, where Madison and
Cameron, the latter having evidently moved out with her, are being delivered
their coffees. In come Parker and Tyler, now also obviously a couple, Madison,
after a quick introduction of all, suggesting she’s “mad at him” for not
calling since he’s been in LA now for two weeks.
Tyler and Cameron leave the two together to talk, as they finally admit
they had not talked about their other sexual explorations for fear of making
the other feel it was their “fault.” But it now makes sense for the first time,
the difficulties they were having. And they reconfirm their love, a solid
platonic base from which they were able to explore other options.
Such relationships often do not end so uneventfully. But what Downey and
Rae make clear in their short narrative is that a heterosexual romance can
sometimes be a good starting place from which to feel safe to explore other
sexualities. Intense friendships are sometimes needed as a base from which to
discover one’s true self. And certainly this wouldn’t be the first time that a
gay man and a lesbian sensed that they shared something from which they could
further explore precisely just what that indecipherable “something” was.
*Gaydar is a term used to describe what many
gay and lesbians have developed to help them scout out someone who might be
sexually interested in someone of the same gender, a sort of sixth sense, what
be described as a kind of “radar” that is able to sense gay sexuality that is
not openly expressed or, in some cases, is not even noticed by the one sending
out the signals.
There is, of course, no such thing. It is at most a refined sense of
recognizing subtle signals that sometimes gay men and women send out to one
another without them actually knowing or intending to. And obviously, it is not
always reliable, a talent that is also open to a great deal of wishful
thinking. It is close to what I have described as “dropping beads,” but that is
an active attempt to explore the other, while “gaydar” supposedly picks up even
passive signals, smiles, hand and head movements, the patterns and tone of
voices, the expression of the eyes, how they are groomed and dressed, and of
course, any clues that might be expressed in the individual’s verbal comments.
Los Angeles, May 11, 2022
Reprinted from World Cinema Review (May
2022).
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