User Reviews

I just watched this movie and really liked it. Cloudburst is the story of two lesbians who have been together for 31 years. After Dotty falls out of bed when her partner teases her with a vibrator, her granddaughter decides that she needs to be placed in a nursing home. Stella refuses to allow her to do this so Molly, the granddaughter, tricks Dotty into signing over power of attorney to her and then places her in the home.

Stella busts her out and the two flee to Canada in order to get married, along the way picking up Pretince, a young dancer from New York who is traveling to see his sick mother.

The movie is often touching, and the best scenes were generally the parts where Dotty and Stella were just being a typical old couple, either bickering or showing charming displays of affection (often both at the same time). The humorous scenes often feel unnecessary and occasionally bring the movie down from it's full potential. With that said I did laugh at many of them, especially a hilarious scene where Stella and Pretince cross the Canadian border and are stopped by security. Others weren't as good, for example a scene where Dotty accidentally gets in bed with a naked guy.

All in all it is a great movie and addresses the lives of lesbian seniors who are often ignored by the generally youth-centered LGBT entertainment industry.

I loved the light-hearted banter of this movie. It was sometimes a little slapstick and over the top but it made me laugh. It was refreshing to see lesbian characters who weren't in their twenties.

The only criticism I have of this movie is in the ending - Dot's death seemed totally unnecessary. I half expected her to wink and say 'Just kidding'. Another reviewer thought this might be part of a tendency to make lesbian stories tragic. Personally, I interpreted it as more of a mistaken belief that stories about the elderly have to end in death. Death happens but I dislike the constant portrayal that the elderly aren't doing anything with their lives except waiting for it to end. The enjoyment the two of them got out of life gave most of the movie it's charm.

I will admit, however, that it did give Olympia Dukakis' character an opportunity for a brilliant last line! Almost enough for me to forgive the way they ended it.

Outburst with expletives, bottoms and balls (literally, a blind lady has her head jammed between a naked man's thighs), Thom Fitzgerald's CLOUDBURST is not for the prude, adapted from his own awards-winning eponymous play, it is an atypical queer film illustrating a life-affirming story about an elderly lesbian couple, Stella and Dotty, played respectively by two Oscar winning actress Dukakis (MOONSTRUCK, 1987) and Fricker (MY LEFT FOOT, 1989).

Stella and Dotty have been living together for 31 years, during which period Dotty has become blind. When Dotty's self-seeking granddaughter Molly (Booth) puts her in a nursing home, so as to secure the proprietorship of their property, a feisty Stella spirits Dotty away, they embark a road trip from Maine to Nova Scotia to get married. En route they pick up a young hitchhiker Prentice (Doucette), a guileless dancer-cum-stripper, who is on his way to visit his dying mother Cat (O'Brien), eventually, he becomes their best man and officiate their matrimony.

From MOONSTRUCK to CLOUDBURST, hats off to Ms. Dukakis, edging 80-years-old during the filming, she takes up the gauntlet to play the larger-than-life butch dyke stereotype. Stella takes no prisoners in safeguarding her beloved Dotty, she is outspoken, indomitable and uncompromising, with a mouth can put even the most coarse sailor in the shade. She can also be mischievous and tender-heart-ed, the moments when she and Dotty share their rapport and emancipate their affections can be effectively and concurrently heart-warming and tear-jerking.

Ms. Fricker, hides her Irish accent and counterbalances Stella's panache with her more inwardly- radiated warmness, the blind is often the wiser, but she is not a clichéd femme either, when it comes to the crunch, even Stella balks at their future, she remains firm and we realize who is the real decision-maker. Mr. Doucette, reprises his role in the play, is sidelined mostly as a comic relief in spite of his own misery and an eye-candy to offset the senescence-skewing melancholy which has been loomed around since the very onset.

Mr. Fitzgerald doesn't try to sugarcoat a feel-good ending, since certain things cannot be sidestepped at that stage of life (as the title implies), instead, he chooses to instill laughter and hope in those darkest hours, to celebrate their fulfilled love, something only those lucky ones can have. Varnished with the golden-filtered palette and the awe-inspiring vista along their journey, no wonder CLOUDBURST is a massive crowd-pleaser in terms of its boutique license.

But they can't save this movie from a poorly thought through script and its many plot holes.

The border crossing was a joke with a cavity search for drugs and then followed in quick succession by a release into Canada. And then a back track back to the US to pick up Dukakis and go through the border again in the same truck? Hello? And the granddaughter not realizing her granny and her partner of 31 years are not lesbians? Too much slapstick, and the ending had to end in a punishment for the lesbian theme. Always that same old cliché at the end of such movies.

Most disappointing as the set up of the male stripper and the old couple settling down together had far more appeal.

Too bad, it started really, really well and finished with such a whimper.

4 out of 10.

The irrepressible Olympia Dukakis has really broken ground in her relatively short time as an Oscar winning celebrity. Playing a transsexual apartment owner who left new tenants home made joints, the mother of a transsexual lesbian and the seller of tickets at the "Let's take a wack at Ouiser" booth was already a respected stage actress when she struck gold as Cher's mother. Now, she's Stella, a no-nonsense self confessed dyke who is determined to hold onto the love of her life, and she will do all she can to marry her.

A tickling game results in her lover Brenda Fricker being sent to a convalescent home. Practically beating up Fricker's uptight granddaughter and the local sheriff, Dukakis sneaks Fricker out and heads up to Canada, and like Thelma and Louise, they pick up a hunky hitchhiker, but there's no hanky or panky going on. "You're barking up the wrong fire hydrant", Dukakis tells him as he shows off his goods.

"If that skirt was any shorter, you'd need another hairnet" is perhaps the mildest comment Dukakis says, shocking a very Christian Canadian who picks her up hitchhiking. Certainly, some people will take offense to what she says, but Dukakis refuses to betray who this broad is. Fricker is the more gentle of the two, but equally tough underneath her grandmotherly demeanor. Underneath her masculine exterior, Stella actually beats a heart of gold even though she can be at times very brusk.

Delightfully non-politically correct, it is also extremely romantic in the sense of what Dukakis strives to achieve. Call this a gay "On Golden Pond" as seen through the eyes of Miss Apley, the old lesbian next door to Ethel and Norman Thayer. It is a triumph of determination that gets these two women through their ordeal, with Ryan Doucette in fine support as the surrogate son they find along the way. He's on his way home to see Hus dying mother and seems to be carrying his own secrets. Together, these three opposites share some dynamic adventures, and it ultimately is both bittersweet and funny, but never short of being amusingly human.

Olympia Dukakis is amazing as Stella. Brenda Fricker is incredible as Dot. Ryan Doucette is wonderful as Prentice.

There are spoilers in there. I checked the spoiler box. This is your last chance to skip my review.

If you are offended by foul language don't watch the movie.

Olympia plays an old lesbian with a mouth that would make the saltiest sailor blush. Fabulously funny! Sort of like a lesbian version of Ouiser Boudreaux.

I don't know why some writers think that movies with homosexual characters in them have to have a tragic component. I loved the movie up until just before end ... why couldn't they have just gone back to Maine and lived happily ever after?

The movie hit home. I am gay and have been in a relationship for 22.5 years as of this review. My hubby and I live in a state where gay marriage is not recognized, Alabama. With the right wingers pushing laws to outlaw gay marriage (or recognition of it performed in other states) it is very scary. We have no rights. Even armed with a folder full of legal paperwork things are not certain. One of the main characters, Dot, is shipped off to an old folks home by her granddaughter. The granddaughter tricks her into signing over her power of attorney ... Dot is blind and so she can't read what she is signing. No, this is not just fiction. There are some terribly nasty people in the world.

One of my favorite scenes is where Stella is hitch hiking the last part of the way to Canada. A guy picks her up and she goes off into this bit about the C-word ... it reminded me of George Carlin's bit about the F- word. I was howling with laughter watching Olympia do this scene.

Blast - was going to give the movie a 9 because of the writer's desire to put another tragic spin on a story with homosexual characters but the rest of the movie is definitely a 10. Oh, I did find the scene where Dot got into bed with the naked man very funny ... I loved when she started whacking him with her walking stick - very much like something that Diana Trent (Waiting for God) would have done ... but she would have whacked to permanently damage.

Really, this is a great movie. Very engaging. The acting is great. The characters are wonderful.

*No spoilers until the end of the review* (no explicit spoilers in the end either, but you can easily guess what it's about)

Two elderly lesbians, Stella and Dotty, on a road trip to Canada to get married. On their way they pick up a hitchhiker, Prentice.

Cloudburst is a beautiful and funny movie with great pacing and good actors. I liked the characters and their stories, they were funny and interesting and each character brings their own personality and complexity into the movie. The one thing I disliked about this movie is the ending, on which I elaborate below.

All in all, definitely worth watching.

***spoilers (not explicit)***

The ending could have been better. I don't have a problem with sad or tragic endings, but it was absolutely unnecessary here. It didn't add emotional depth or anything good into the movie. It could have just as easily ended happily and it would have been just as great if not better.

I absolutely loved hearing what came out of Dukakis' mouth. Seriously my jaws were hurt with laughter with the amount of curse words she was using on people. Man she really did play a butch lesbian really well and like it wouldn't be hard to love her character. Frickers character was brillant too, omg I absolutely laughed at the scene where she accidentally hit the hitchhikers fathers balls with her head, when she thought that she was sleeping with her partner. Seriously Brenda Fricker can play a blind person really well, especially with a lot of humour! I even thought Doucette's character was super good as the hitchhiker and of course, he was very handsome which is a bonus ;P Really though, he was brillant too!

All actors were brilliant including Kristin Booth as the granddaughter. I have to admit though in the end, it was sad and unexpected when Frickers character died and the fact that both women didn't get a chance to have a proper wedding ceremony but it taught us that love never died with those two women!

I give this 9/10!

I was really looking forward to this because I like Olympia Dukakis as an actor. However even though she acted well her character was just a miserable human being. She was mean to everybody including the woman she loved. Her choices seem to be questionable at best. The whole thing seemed unreasonable and the choices they made to do what when didn't make sense. Why they didn't go ahead and get married I don't know. Why she called the niece when they were going to get married I don't know. And the ending of her lover dying is a real downer. Even the supposed comedy scenes didn't really come off well.