Senator’s daughter Annabelle (Erin Kelly) is sent to a Catholic girls’ school in an effort to curb her wild ways and avoid a political scandal. But sparks fly between the sexually precocious teenager and troubled schoolteacher Simone Bradley (Diane Gaidrey) who is mourning the loss of her girlfriend and trapped in a loveless straight relationship. Annabelle pursues Simone who initially avoids any romantic entanglement until their emotional connection proves impossible to resist.
Although lesbian schoolgirls grace scores of crass porno efforts, the subject has been dealt with more sensitively in the past, notably Radley Metzger’s poetic Therese and Isabelle (1968) and the German classic Mädchen in Uniform (1958) starring Euro-cinema icon Romy Schneider, of which Loving Annabelle is supposedly a remake. Whereas even such sympathetic treatments veered towards voyeurism, here indie writer-director Katherine Brooks - who started out in reality television shows like The Real World and The Osbournes - steers the subject away from male fantasy and places the emphasis where it needs to be, on love. Some have criticised the seemingly squeaky clean, almost antiseptic tone to what is meant to be a torrid romance, but the film succeeds by being more emotionally than sexually provocative and intertwines too potentially transgressive ideas: not just a mature woman and an underage girl but a teacher/student liaison. Brooks argues that love, all forms of love, forges a connection between human beings that enable them to find their place in the world. Without love in her life, Simone seems lost for the most part. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) star Kevin McCarthy cameos as a kindly Catholic priest whose earnest sermons draw the occasional laugh from his schoolgirl congregation. Nevertheless, he proves the most sensitive to Simone’s plight and underlines the film’ key theme through anecdote about his own priest denouncing gypsies as bound for hell. McCarthy argues if God is everywhere and in everything, how can one way of life be more moral than another.
While the pace is too leisurely for its own good and the plot somewhat one-note, Brooks’ sunny, poetic visuals complement the amiable characters. The script is snappy and the protagonists are vividly drawn. Brooks held onto star Erin Kelly when studios began offering her more money in return for bigger name, thus stalling her project for three years, but the gamble paid off. Avoiding the usual cliches about rebellious teenagers, Kelly highlights Annabelle’s ability to empathise with fellow students, including meek, oft-persecuted Colins (Laura Breckenridge) and surly Cat (Gustine Fudickar), which is what draws Simone to her in the first place. Given the writer-director is a woman the emphasis is on romantic longing rather than steamy sex although there is some of that. To its credit the film does not skirt the inappropriate nature of a teacher sleeping with a student, as thanks to a vindictive Cat events take a turn for the worst but without recourse to heavyhanded tragedy.
