The year during which this low budgeted independent work received numerous festival awards must surely have been one that supplied only weak competition, as this piece is awash with artsy self-indulgence, and any dramatic potential reclining within the trite screenplay of Dalene Young, an adaptation from her play, is rather less than imaginatively developed, and a viewer may feel a sense of relief when the enervated affair finally concludes. Set, and filmed in, the industrialized Loft District of downtown Los Angeles, the melodrama treats, in languid fashion, of a relationship between callow painter Angelo (Christian Leffler), and Lee Ann (Mariam Parris), an extremely imprudent young woman whose capricious existence allows her the freedom to support herself by selling her newborn babies immediately after their births, actions not designed to keep alive Angelo's concern for her well-being, particularly since he is the father of the third vendible infant. Lee Ann's fatuous behaviour, at best somewhat silly and generally vulgar, eliminates opportunities provided Angelo for a more stable romantic affiliation or even the maintenance of his friendship with best friend Sammy (Danny Cistone), a budding actor, resulting in the mismatched pair being fit for societal contact primarily with a quaint married couple desirous of purchasing Lee Ann's most recent offspring, although these latter two have a tantalizing secret of their own to disclose. Although cast performances are largely marked by overacting, the vivacious Parris does upon occasion bring signs of life to her role, although not enough to rescue the picture from its indistinctive direction and screenplay. Sound mixing and editing are above standard and raises the quality of a York DVD that offers not the slightest extra feature.
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