Love Is Love Is Love

Writers are advised to write what they know, and Eleanor Coppola does seem to give viewers a glimpse of her own life by telling stories of older, wealthy White women. Joanne's husband is away for months at a time as a filmmaker, making it challenging to keep their spark alive. Diana is happy with her life of tennis, gardening, and book clubs, but now that her husband is retired, he wants to spend quality time with her (ugh?). And after the unseen Claire passes, her successful daughter, Caroline (Kazan), learns that her mom was actually super cool and regrets she hadn't seen her more frequently. The friends who praise Claire's thoughtfulness, support, and other fantastic qualities ("We had great talks about race!" says the movie's lone Black character) are a Who's Who of actresses in their 60s, including Cybill Shepherd, Rita Wilson, and Rosanna Arquette.

It's hard not to think that many of the moments, fantasies, and familiar faces in Love Is Love Is Love aren't borrowed from Coppola's own life. On the one hand, that helps give it authenticity. But on the other, Coppola's privileged life is pretty out of touch with that of almost everyone else -- which ultimately makes these stories pretty boring. Films often aim to show the most important event in a character's life -- or a moment that allows for significant personal growth. In this case, we see just a glimpse, and those glimpses leave the characters' stories unresolved. That said, while the stories are a dud, the rest of the filmmaking is good. The cinematography is rich, warm, and well lit; the editing is excellent; the production design is spot-on; and the actors deliver (Baker, in particular, brings crackle to dull dialogue). And one wonderful result of having an 85-year-old woman director in charge is that the film is eager to showcase the genuine beauty of its stars. Bottom line? Adults might get something out of these snippets of long-lasting relationships, but few are going to love it, and teens aren't likely to care.