CONCUSSION
US, 2013, 96 minutes, Colour.
Robin Weigert, Julie Fain Lawrence, Maggie Siff, Jonathan Tchaikovsky.
Directed by Stacey Passon.
The concussion of the title occurs at the beginning of the film when Abby, Robin Weigert, is hit on the head accidentally by a baseball thrown by her young son. She goes to the hospital, has the remnants of the hit for quite a while but the concussion does something to throw her off balance about her life.
Abby lives in a partnership with Kate and their two children, a boy and a girl. Abby is 42, dissatisfied with her relationship, and goes to visit a female prostitute. This has such an effect on her that she decides to enter into relationships with women, setting up an apartment that she has been decorating with her friend, Justin, Jonathan Tchaikovsky, who has connections with prostitutes and is able to arrange for her her some clients. Abby changes her name to a professional, Eleanor. She also meets the potential clients for a cup of tea or coffee to set up a relationship, to understand them. They then come to the apartment. The clients include an overweight young woman, a bored housewife, a parent at the school where Abby’s children go (Maggie Siff).
The film then is the psychological and emotional study of Abby, what she has achieved in her life with children, with her partnership, with dissatisfaction. She is professionally adept, especially at redecorating and working with Justin.
She begins to see her role as assisting the women in their emotional and psychological growth, forming personal bonds with them. There is a complication with the mother from the same town, an assertive woman, bored, with plenty of money. Abby meets her at the supermarket with her husband whom she professes to love. He then comes to the newly refurbished apartment, interested in buying it, Abby interested in selling it, asking him when he signs the contract whether he left his wife or she left him.
There are continued tensions with her partner, making life difficult at home, except in her relationship with her children. The film is open-ended with her selling her apartment, getting a new house, repossessing her relationships.
While the film features lesbian characters, the screenplay takes this for granted, the protagonists not going into discussions about the nature of homosexual relationships.
