Just like the protagonist, watching this film for me was an act of experimentation in a genre i'm not particularly familiar with (LGBT). The reviews describe it as a stunning masterpiece of cinema, but i felt compelled to comment simply to redress the balance.TL;DR: this is a sales pitch for the lesbian lifestyle - targeted at the US middle class - attempting to masquerade as a "deep" film.The pretentiousness and disingenuousness are what stand out the most, but simply the most frustrating point of the whole two hours is that it's misses an incredible opportunity to examine the powerful and interesting issues it so nearly touches on: female sexual dysfunction, the moral ambiguity of prostitution, the awkward navigation of sexual fantasy, the family dynamics of terminal diagnosis, and more. It scrapes the 0.1% sludge off a barrel ten miles deep.This is what it *could* have been, if it weren't such a blatant and craven agenda-driven Trojan horse. It doesn't touch on any of these.The message: being a lesbian is awesome, and you should try it if you're a middle class white housewife. It's the solution of all of a woman's problems, and the only route to true and safe sexual experience, which will ultimately heal you from your emotional repression (see the name of the film). Fulfilling your sexual fantasies is a way to cope with your cancer diagnosis, whilst being surrounded by all the terribly abusive masculine influences in your life you never cared about anyway.How do you know it's a sales pitch? Sales only emphasises one side of an equation: the "beneficial" one the salesperson wants you to buy. Journalistic or cinematic integrity demands both sides are examined. There is no downside to the character's choices.Aside from the horrendous cliché around every corner (straight girl's OMG lesbian besties!, sexually abusive stepfather, noble 2nd career escort, cynical brothel madam, lesbian liberation, ungrateful kids etc), the forced acting, the wooden dialogue, the unlikable characters that are impossible to attach to, the endless piano soundtrack covering up bad background noise over slow-mo porn, the faux/feigned/forced sentiment, the sanctimonious message, the erotica laced with feigned "philosophical" therapy talk, and the almost sociopathic disassociation from a central issue as devastating as terminal cancer, the most redeeming thing about this walking advertisement for gay normalcy is it's done with a degree of tasteful sensitivity and got a well-used switcharoo trope that approaches surprise.If you think this is somehow "deep", you clearly must be the type of insincere person this kind of film appeals to, who thinks it means "slow motion shots with piano". It's pure self- indulgent claptrap with a self-involved character from a self-indulgent director trying to sell pink ideology whilst willfully ignoring the challenging issues it could really have bitten into.If you're going to try to extrapolate a "milf" porn scenario into a serious film, at least add some blowback to decisions and/or make your characters remotely human. You want your audience to actually care if your protagonist dies.Go rent "Milk", "Circumstance", or "Boys Don't Cry" instead.

I have seen lesbian themed movies before. "A Perfect Ending" is so layered, I found it to be three movies in one. There was so much to be embraced in this work of art by Nicole Conn, this is by far her best work since "Elena Undone". I was so moved, I cried, every time I watched it, I saw myself, I saw my Mom, I saw a friend or two, there was so much to relate to. At the same time, it is a feel-good movie that should have gone mainstream. Nicole Conn gives us an outlet, a venue in which to see ourselves. "A Perfect Ending" is nothing short of "Perfect". Soulkiss films have always been a favorite among my collection of lesbian themed films. Others come close but never compare. Nicole Conn is the best storyteller on the planet. She tells "our" stories, she gives us fantasies, she gives us hope, she leaves us wanting more. She does this with class, dignity and I believe, A Perfect Ending is not a lesbian themed movie. It is a movie. Period. Because as lesbians, we are here, and we are society, and separate from no one.

I found a Perfect Ending to be a powerful examination of the question posed to any of us when we receive a terminal diagnosis, or we are left crippled after an accident. Each of us reacts differently when we learn that our lives are foreshortened, when we discover we may never achieve those goals we had dreamed about.A Perfect Ending is the story of how one woman reacts when she has a devastating prognosis. The way she sets about to achieve one very deep desire, and all the consequences of her actions form the main plot of this film.It is the story of two women, wounded deeply by events in their own lives who are healed by the passionate love they experience for one another. The love scenes are so perfectly shot that there is never an element of voyeurism, instead they become the essence of gentle reaching out we have all known in our relationships. As a person living with a terminal illness myself, this film had me both weeping and laughing at different times at the manner in which this story is played out. Thank you Nicole.

Rebecca is in a marriage where she has never had a climax, and she and her husband Mason have sex twice a year, whether they want to or not. Mason is a bit of a shifty dealer, and he signs over certain company segments to Rebecca to avoid litigation and perhaps criminal charges. He's very controlling with her and keeps her in the dark as much as possible.Theme 1: Rebecca's lesbian friends try to get her to enjoy herself more with another woman, perhaps through Valentina, who runs a service for that. This starts slowly with Paris, since Rebecca is skittish about it, but picks up speed later.Theme 2: Rebecca decides to use Mason's overconfidence to take control of most of his companies. The documents he urged her to sign earlier are a great help in this. Further into the film, we find out that Rebecca has terminal cancer. She will have a lot of decisions to make.Theme 3.: Rebecca's first lesbian lover, Paris, is going through emotional turmoil herself over the loss of a loved one. Some time ago, she had a minor laughing spat with her husband. She playfully pushed him away, into the path of a car that killed him.Theme 4: Rebecca's daughter from a first marriage feels left out, plus Mason abused her sexually a few years back. One Mason and Rebecca's two sons is to be married into even more money, but his prospective wife is a bit of an odd duck.Will Rebecca and Mason handle the full transfer of power before she is gone? Will Rebecca figure out her sexual identity? Will Paris get over the exact way that her husband died? Will the next generation get their acts together? -------Scores--------Cinematography: 7/10 There were too many closeups of mundane objects coupled with rack focus. The shots of Paris emoting were atmospheric, but more often boring than not. The regular footage was very well done.Sound: 8/10 Mostly OK, but dips too low sometimes.Acting: 5/10 Lots of variation: John Heard was quite convincing; Barbara Niven almost convincing; the actors who play the grown up children were rather bad, as were the actors who played the lesbian friends.Screenplay: 5/10 The story lines made sense eventually, but the whole thing was rather ponderous. Oh, well, soap opera traditions.