Imagine Me and You

A romantic comedy with a twist. A woman gets married to her best friend to find herself eventually falling in love with the florist who did her flowers at her wedding. She begins to question her sexuality and most of all, her heart when she realizes that she can only choose between the man she married or the woman she fell in love with.

This movie’s philosophy is purely simple. It wraps around the idea of ‘love at first sight’ and spins a tale of unconventional romance, where Fate plays most of its role in the plot.

“Imagine Me and You” (IMAY) was released to a limited audience in the US and parts of the world. It’s movie poster hinted where the movie was obviously heading. Though, with such an approach to a lesbian movie, audiences felt more satisfied going out of the theatre than when they first went in, at that time filled with doubt and premature regret.

The good thing about it is that you will definitely not rue later after the movie is very well ended as mentioned in the paragraph before.

As far as romantic comedies go, IMAY does nothing but to give you the usual cheesy laughs and squirm-in-your seat moments. Ironically, it is also safe to say that IMAY is not pathetically lame to the extent that your boyfriend makes every desperate plea to leave the theatre (equally so since it features a girl-on-girl storyline which we know is one of the topic of particular liking for the male species).

In this lesbian love affair, where the attraction is so tempting in every scene for the two female leads, Piper Perabo plays Rachel who at the beginning feels so fervent about marrying her best friend, Heck (Matthew Goode). She cannot believe she’s finally taking that big step with someone she’s known her whole life and can’t wait to share the rest of her’s with him. She is understandably excited as she prepares for her walk down the aisle. Piper’s comedic stance is fairly commendable in most scenes as the sometimes clumsy woman that has become quite inherent in most female leads in rom-coms. As seen in one part at the start of the film, Piper decked out in her lovely white dress wears a worried look on her face whilst her father (Anthony Head) chatters on in excitement. The audience have been lead to believe she was starting to get cold feet but then the prognostic becomes false when in the next scene, we hear her asking for the car to be stopped before running into a McDonald’s to pee. Moving on, at the chapel, Heck meets with Luce (Lena Headey), the philosophical florist. She introduces herself as the person who did their flower arrangements. At the same time, Heck’s best man, the cliched single guy with a dying need to flirt with every girl he meets, tries to seize the opportunity to get acquainted with this lovely woman before him. At this point, Luce acts neutral toward his flirtations, giving not much away about her sexuality.

Come the walk down the aisle, Rachel walks with her father on her arm. Heck is looking lovingly from the front and so do the rest of the attendees. Luce, before the ceremony began sat with Rachel’s kid sister whom has become to like Luce a lot. When the wedding march starts to play, Luce suddenly feels compelled to remove herself from the place, but as she does so, she is also interested to know how the bride looks like. And with that,serves its purpose in introducing the two future lovers to each other. Both catch each others fleeting gaze, almost exuding that sudden overwhelming feeling of want. Needless to say, Rachel shrugs it off as nothing and continues to see herself being married to Heck.

Only at the after-party do Rachel and Luce meet, in a considerably tricky situation. Rachel had accidentally dropped her wedding ring into the huge jar of fruit punch. Luce steps in to save the day and a friendship is quickly formed.

Their friendship starts to escalate after an outing to a football match makes Rachel realize that she could be seriously infatuated with this woman whom she conveniently finds out from Heck is not straight. Rachel then finds herself in a precarious situation after throwing herself at Luce. She is drawn between her loyalty to Heck as a wife and her developing relationship with someone she finds herself smitte with.

Deducing this film, this tale of two women enraptured in love plays with such innocence that it does not leave out the whole point of a romantic comedy. The movie is undeniably brilliant in its own way. The certain correlation shared between these two women in love where both are in a torn position which ever way you see it shows how delicately woven this story is.

Piper Perabo’s British accent is laudable, suffice to say. She plays out the role quite comprehensibly which makes up for her lesser liked role as another lesbian in “Lost & Delirious”. Lena Headey’s portrayal in this film has earned her a lesbian icon status as well which I would not disagree with. She makes being gay look good. As for Matthew Goode, we can’t help but feel sorry for him. He plays his role as the sweet and understanding guy perfectly which makes the audience feel terrible about what it is to become of his character in the film if a happy ending exists. Anthony Head and Celia Imrie are also added bonuses in the film, so kudos to Ol Parker for casting them in.

On An Added Note: Not for anti-gays and staunch believers of the bible. If you persist to watch this movie, please do not ruin it for others who do not share the same views as you as this is a beautiful film.