While it’s not the most perceptive film exploring the diversity of the lesbian experience, Life Partners has several insightful comic moments that ring true. The story follows Paige (Gillian Jacobs), a straight environmental lawyer and her BFF Sasha (Leighton Meester), a receptionist-musician who has recently gone through a breakup and finds it difficult to navigate the smallish lesbian community of the unnamed city they reside in. (Which appears from the production design to be in the Pacific Northwest, although I later learned the film was shot in Los Angeles). A sense of place and community is relatively important with regards to cultural experience and one’s ability to float; some cities are sink or swim, others have a lot of floaters like Sasha.
After an evening of drinking and America’s Next Top Model, both Sasha and Paige agree to go out on dates they met online, each with their own results. Paige is successful, meeting Tim (Adam Brody) a dermatologist who frequently quotes movie lines and rocks quirky Urban Outfitters t-shirts much to the horror of both Sasha and Paige. Generally he’s a good guy and Paige commits, which of course leads to a predictable rift when Next Top Model night and other celebrations are cancelled to accommodate the Tim and his plans.
More drama comes when Sasha starts seeing the ex of another friend Jenn (Beth Dover) named Vanessa (Abby Elliott), whom she finds crying one night at a Jack In The Box after Sasha stops off for a guilty pleasure snack. This, of course, must be broken to her social circle in the most careful of ways with the proper Facebook friend-ing sequencing and wall posts as to appear “organic,” despite the fact Sasha’s hook-up isn’t anything to feel ashamed of.
Director and co-writer Susanna Fogel, who previously worked in television, gives the film an episodic structure with moments that feel at home in the best sitcoms. As far as romantic comedies go, it breaks no new ground as it attempts to meld the raw emotion and lucid structure of mumblecore into a sitcom. While it’s largely enjoyable, Life Partners’ treatment of sexuality is perhaps more or less concerned with the shallow politics of a gossiping clique. I have to wonder if this is realistic or condescending — perhaps we can split the difference and just call it “entertainment.”
What works is the real, nuanced relationship on screen, as Jacobs and Meester have several wonderful, realistic and telling exchanges. This is a story that’s been told before, sure, but emotionally it has original moments. Meester’s Sasha continues to keep up the good fight despite a lack of ambition (working in a job you hate always has a negative impact on one’s creativity). This feels like the authentic millennial experience for many who, for one reason or another, haven’t figured it out yet.
Life Partners premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.