When 20 something-year-old designer Lauren (Velinda Godfrey) is dealing with her girlfriend Nicole dying after an extended battle with cancer she is totally on her own. Her very conservative and religious mother (Beth Grant) is in denial about the girls relationship, and her self-absorbed brother is too busy with his own business to be there for her. To make matters worse, when Nicole dies, Lauren then loses both her job and her apartment and so now totally broke has no other alternative to move back to her family home in rural Oklahoma to process her grief and start her life all over again.
Joining her back there is Justin her brother (Aaron Leddick) and his girlfriend Carrie (Laura Spencer) whilst they set up a new local winery, but when Justin has to then go away on a trip, Lauren and Carrie strike up an unlikely friendship. When this somewhat unexpectedly develops further into an emotional connection and then a physical relationship, both girls are very confused and start to panic. It all comes to a head when Justin discovers what is going on, and naturally he feels betrayed by both his sister and his girlfriend.
Heartlands is a touching and tender tale that sensitively deals with such issues as love and loss and family dynamics. What is really refreshing though is that Lauren’s sexuality is not the focal point of the story, and besides her mother refusing to accept the reality of it, no-one else has any problem with it at all. The bond that forms between these two young women is a result of them being at a point in their lives when they both have needs which seems like they can only by met by them being together.
Deftly co-written by Velinda Godfrey (who stars as Lauren) and helmed by first time director Maura Anderson , Heartlands also benefits from having a first rate cast with the likes of veteran Beth Grant raising the level of performances to a higher plane than many small-budget indie movies. The movie is causing quite a stir on the LGBT Film Festival circuit at present, and it should also resound well with mainstream audiences beyond this too.
