Lost and Delirious

A romance between two students at a private girls’ school (Piper Perabo, Jessica Pare) is suddenly discovered, leading one (Pare) to spurn the other (Perabo), with devastating results. Writer Judith Thompson and Director Lea Pool, adapting Susan Swan’s novel The Wives of Bath, capture the reckless desperation of adolescent passion and alienation. Perabo is a revelation, wild and fiery — it’s a breakthrough performance, astonishing in its fervency after her bland turns in Coyote Ugly and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. As the young lovers’ roommate, Mischa Barton has the thankless task of playing the helpless onlooker at a train wreck, but it’s a mark of Barton’s talent and Pool’s sensitivity that the character grows and changes after weathering the turmoil she sees around her.