I Can't Think Straight

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The Netflix summary was promising. I stared at it on my queue for weeks before I took the plunge and watched it. I must say I was slightly disappointed. More soap opera episode than substantive movie, this offering aims to tackle an important but taboo subject: homosexuality within two very conservative families, infused with a healthy dose of Middle East politics. As a vehicle for this critical message, it fails among the stunningly beautiful women (or people) and glitzy set. Both were a distraction. Even the help was made up of beautiful people. There were also too many people and there was not enough character development to properly introduce you to each one. The actors weren't that good. None of them could summon the right emotion for the circumstances. They uttered their lines with the conviction of POWs. As for the substance of the movie, it promised more than it delivered. We know that a wedding was called off because a bride later found out she was homosexual. We know that one of the women (which one???) later fell in love with another woman, only to end up with the first woman who introduced her to homosexuality. Nothing further is said about the second woman. If this sentence has you confused, you can see how I felt. The only redeeming feature was the somewhat surprising outcome. Neither family freaked out. Watch it for the eye candy.

Out of many movies made on the theme of lesbianism, this stands out as one of the best.. It compels the viewers to think what after all is so very wrong with lesbianism,, what is so unpardonable in companionship and romantic relation between two grown up ladies.. Isn't physical contact between a male and a female about mutual satisfaction and procreation.. The present day society does not look with cynicism the capable couples who choose adaption to procreation .. In fact the society now encourages it and praises it.. The issue of course may not be so simple.. The importance of social and religious values have to be respected.. But love, as everybody agrees, is much more than sex.. The more famed Lisa Ray as Tala is definitely gorgeous.. But Sheetal Seth as Leyla is much more impressive .. Acting by both is good.. Intimate scenes by the ladies are well filmed and not overdone .. The emotional scenes are great.. the religious issues can hardly be handled properly, in a limited movie that is mainly meant to emphasize the relevance of woman-woman relation.. Photography is good.. Dialogues could have been better.. A must see for all people who either advocate or resent such relation..

Only one thing which was right for this movie was its story. Except that, everything was crap. Terrible screenplay. It could have been much better in the same budget. Many scenes don't seem realistic to me, eg. Tala and Leyla first meeting scene, tennis court scene, and changing room scene after the tennis court one. Terrible acting, or I should say actors are not pushed enough making it to immature direction. They could have been asked to give a retake. Characters are not developed well. Viewer is not able to feel for the character. Music was crap. It was unable to present the emotion of the scenes. Background score is over dramatic. Editing is clumsy. Overall, it is better to skip it, not worth of your hour and a half.

I've seen Despite the Falling Snow, which was okay, but I could not expect anything from the same director to be this bad. No, really. Every cliché in the book. People talking religion the first time they meet. A family forcing their daughter to marry a cokehead because he's from a good family. A mother telling her daughter "Why don't you make an Indian salad instead of a Greek salad? Why are you so ashamed of your own culture?" What the hell is that? Then there's another scene where the daughter buys Ethiopian bread, but the racist Indian mum says "We have Indian bread! This is Sparta! Tonight we dine in hell!" The last part is fake, but you get the point. The film shows Indians to be cultural supremacists, refusing to allow carbs from Ethiopia into their household. The mum insists that Ethiopians don't have bread, because they're starving in Ethiopia. Hate to break it to you, grandma, but people are starving in India too, as well as the UK, Kuwait, Mexico and New Zealand. They all have bread though. Then the mum goes full racist, throwing a tantrum and screaming "Come and take this horrible bread and send it to Africa where it belongs." I'm not denying that some Indians are racist, but if you have a racist mum who is racist about bread, the issue would come up way before you're in your mid- twenties and are weeks away from getting married. Usually this issue comes up the first time she sees you eating a pretzel or a bagel at 12. Not sudden mid-life anti-carb racism. It just keeps going. Ridiculous wedding music. A man telling a woman to "cover her shoulders" - she's wearing a shoulderless dress. You saw her buy it, take it out, wear it. It's too late for shoulders now, mate. So he gives her some random scarf to wear. That makes no sense. He would've surely objected the moment he saw the dress, not 1 minute before the engagement party. But we have men telling women they're indecent, and that's what counts. The father talks about the 6-Day War with Israel at the engagement party, because that's what Middle Easterners do all the time according to this director. Then it goes to Israel. A scene where a servant spits in a coffee that she serves to the lady of the house, and she keeps trying to give it to the lady, who, just before taking a sip, asks a question about a cake, a dress, etc. This is repeated several times. This is not good enough for something like Friends, much less a film. You thought that was boring? It is repeated again with a glass of water less than 8 minutes later. Someone says "She's had 4 fiances, you know" showing 4 fingers at the same time in case we don't understand. Then the Muslim woman asks if her Arab friend will get married in a mosque. You can't get married in a mosque. It's a temple. Buddhists don't get married in a Buddhist temple. Then she's corrected "not all Arabs a Muslim" (this family is Christian), but then says "We're getting married in a Church." !! Arab Christians don't get married in church either, honey. Churches in the ME are temples - there's no bingo night or any of that stuff. You can assume that someone unaware of Islamic culture could ask if someone would get married in a mosque, but in this film, the only ignorant person is the director. The person asking "Will you get married in a mosque?" is a Muslim herself, showing complete ignorance of her own religion. Indians, Arabs, everyone speaks English at home because subtitles are too complicated for Sarif's target audience who want to look at pretty girls. There's erotica, dancing, lesbians in bed, etc. Feminine-looking lesbians, if you were wondering. Calling this a TV-film would be a compliment. It's more of an 80-minute soap.

While I'm sure that the vast majority of male viewers of this film will have come to it because of how easy on the eye the two lead actresses are, but for me I came to it because I had heard that it was a quite charming little film about culture clashes and coming out. From the outset there is certainly a degree of charm that comes with the rather glossy sheen on the total production and certainly the performances are mostly geared towards "light" material rather than anything too complex. It also, having an autobiographical content, comes over as warmly sympathetic to the two protagonists – a feeling that it easily allows the viewer to share. However, none of this is enough to make it as good as it could have been, mainly because of the problems with the material. The film is very short and this combines with some awful dialogue to make everything feel very superficial. While some of the scenes between Tala and Leyla are touching and intimate, some of them have all the subtly and realism of set-up dialogue in a * film. Leyla is well done as more reserved and laid back but Tala is too forward and rushed, making everything happen suddenly without any indication that either of the two women are having any sort of inner though process at all. I was surprised because I had heard some good things about it but at times I was half expecting one of the characters to start saying things like "oh, my, look my shirt has come undone" and other clunky lines – truth be told it is sometimes not far from that. This does really hurt the film but not alone – "helping" it alone is also a lack of real development in the characters and situations themselves. Everything is little more than words and I never got the sense of much below the surface – again surprising since the film is supposed to be based on the maker's real life experiences. Perhaps because of this, the performances tend towards being a bit wooden and really only manage to do more because of the performers themselves. Sheth is probably the stronger of the lead two because she has the most vulnerability to her character and is on the most interesting journey; she does this well. Ray is not so good. Her performance plays thinks too strong and confident and there is no discovery to her, no small steps and no real sign of anything going on below the surface. Together they make a very attractive couple but their performances and their dialogue limits their chemistry. The supporting cast are mostly pretty stiff and unconvincing, hurting the narrative but also fudging the occasional attempts at humour. Overall I Can't Think Straight is a nice idea that is done with a certain amount of charm, but not enough to cover the problems with it. The lack of depth and complexity (even in basic ways) are what hurts it because it turns what could have been an interesting and touching film into one that is overwhelmingly superficial in its design and delivery. Still a nice film but could and could have been so much more.

I enjoyed 'I Can't Think Straight' (which i think is a very clever title indeed given the content of the film). It raises the issue of lesbianism but in the context of Indian culture. Arranged marriages and a mother who is wanting to marry you off to the most suitable husband. Usually the man who comes from the most prestigious family, who is very successful, tall, very hansom, etc. All because the mother of the family wanting to marry off their daughter wants to gain some financial security and prestige for the family. (Or at least this is how it has been portrayed to me in the film). But what about if the daughter is gay? Much harder to imagine I feel, and 'I Can't Think Straight' portrays this matter very well. The movie is full of alluring cinematography and well constructed dialogue. Particularly I found, when the characters of Lisa Ray and Sheetal Sheth go for their ramble in the park. This is an especially elegant scene but the whole film screams decoration and harmony. The acting from the main characters is spot on and they must have received clear direction from Shamim Sarif. Some of the minor character's acting is quite poor and does not do justice to the script. but on the whole, it makes little difference to the story.

Having learnt of the author, I started reading her blogs which was very interesting. It got me thinking about wanting to read her books. But, me being me!! LAZY... decided to watch the film instead. And was I disappointed? And how. Well, there is nothing more to this film than what the posters have to offer. Sheer EYE CANDY. That is it!! My regards to the ever so beautiful Lisa Ray and also Sheetal Seth. An issue of being gay in sensitive religious families, as the director felt it should be portrayed seems to look very unimportant. The passionate scenes in the film, is far from being romantic. Expected a lot more romance from a director who is herself gay. Shamim, if you yourself do ever read this, do write to me and I will assist you in making better films. my email id: rite2ron@gmail.com

If you want to spend 90 minutes of enjoyable relax alone or with your friends, you should watch "I can't think straight", based on same name novel. It is the story of two women who, after they met, they understood much more about their selves. This is not only a love story, it is the story of two different cultures that blend and mix: Tala comes from Jordan and Leyla comes from Palestina, while magnificent London is the best background for this love affair. There is a strong recall to Bollywood cinematography (music, costumes, characters), as a sort of homage to director's biography. The story comes also along quite quickly, so you can't be bored. This is why there are a lot of romantic and passionate scenes, but also many funny situations which joke some Indian stereotypes.

I recently saw this movie screened at USC. Since I was going for extra credit in a gender studies class, I expected it to be awful. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. The only issue I had with it was an awkward transition from Tala's engagement party to the first scene with Leyla. Overall, the movie was very entertaining, with well developed characters and plot, while at the same time dealing with the issues lesbians face in different cultures in a very effective manner. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone with an open mind and a sense of humor. 9/10.