Elena Undone (2010)
To begin with- this movie is as terribly written as it is transcendently satisfying.
Watching this film about Elena, a pastor’s wife, tumbling into a life-altering love affair with another woman did more to heal my religious trauma than years of therapy ever could (I don’t mean that, Meredith, you da best).
The whole film is narrated by a man I like to call Sweater Vest Nightmare. He is filming a self-help video about finding your twin flame, which serves as a frame tale for our sapphic adventure. This whole experience is nothing but comforting for the viewer. You will not have to spare one axon or dendrite making connections because they are all made for you…by Sweater Vest Nightmare. He serves a similar function to the viewer’s brain as Temple Grandin’s Hug Machine does for a cow on the brink of slaughter. Smooth brain energy.
Let us now pause to read an actual quote from my notes as I watched this movie for the second time: “ Let the record show that I am less than 10 minutes into this movie and I have never cared about anything as much as this. I have found the one whom my soul loves.”
As you might have surmised by the nickname I gave him, Sweater Vest Nightmare was NOT my favorite at the start of this movie, but that all changed when he greets Elena (after his smokin’ hot, CEO finance bitch of a wife leaves) only to see that she looks quite upset and he immediately says to her, “We need to get you a drink!” Can you imagine? This is the absolute best case scenario, I believe, for human relationships. He immediately shot to the top of my list.
The characters in this movie are a delicious sampling of tropes, but boy do they form a top-notch team! Besides Sweater Vest Nightmare, we have sassy (somehow) British BFF who tells Payton (Elena’s lover) that “[She] is under strict orders to only do things that make [her] feel good.” Fucking inspired. We all need a cheeky bestie to remind us of our worth every once in a while, don’t we? The last and most certainly least tropey character to darken the doorway of this film is Chismosa Church Bitch. This woman is wholeheartedly doing THE MOST for THE LORD at all times. At one point when Elena refuses to join them at a protest (which we are to assume is against gays…you know, existing) she, a grown ass woman, says to Elena, another grown ass woman,” SHAME ON YOU.” The audacity! But don’t worry folks, when Elena’s pastor husband apologizes to the group for his wife having A REACTION to BEING BULLIED, Chismosa Church Bitch promptly replies with, “I’ve already forgiven her.” Believe me when I tell you that someone in the writers room spent formative years of their life in a church setting. I wish she was not real, but she can be found with a flowery Bible clasped between her spindly monster fingers in the foyer of any church from sea to shining sea.
As for the numerical review- this movie scores off the charts for yearning. The eye contact. The sensual photoshoot for Payton’s about the author page. The eye contact. The scene right after Elena and Payton spend time together and then they meet up in the park and the first shot is of A WATERFALL. It broke the scale, truly. The. sex. scenes. are. so. slow. it. is. the. gayest. and. best. As for representation- there are a few folks of color during Sweater Vest Nightmare’s interviews…but we are left seriously lacking. Authenticity scores high because the effort that these two women put into preserving the fantasy that they are just some friends who do business together and they need to keep hanging out because of their mutually beneficial business connection…takes on mythic proportions. This is a tale as old as time, folks. The craft is terrible, but in an entirely playful and life-giving way.
One night I dreamed a dream that I was walking on the beach with this film. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life and for each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonging to me and one belonging to this film. At the lowest and saddest times of my life I saw only one set of footprints. This troubled me, so I asked, “Elena Undone, you said you’d walk with me all the way, so then why is there only one set of footprints? I don’t understand why, when I needed you the most, you would leave me.” The film whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you. When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried You.”
