Reviews & Ratings for
April's Shower More at IMDbPro »

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Nothing for the academy, but a decent little comedy nonetheless, 4 February 2007

Author: V. Meredith Toenjes from Kansas City, Kansas, USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I enjoyed the movie. I'll just say that from the start. As other reviewers have stated, it is a bit convoluted and some of the acting was scary bad. (the character of Kelly and the Spanish dancer come to mind). April's mother certainly took the express-lane to attitude change.

I can think of better lesbian-themed comedies. "Imagine Me & You", "Chutney Popcorn", & "It's in the Water" come immediately to mind. However, I've also seen far worse ones and I will say that even though I bought it blind, I don't feel that I wasted my $5 or that it'll be taking up space on my shelf w/o reason. I'll likely watch it over now and again.

Expect roughly 98 minutes of entertainment and you'll not be disappointed. Expect striking social commentary or high art and you will. Try not to wince at the bad acting, they're at least the exception.

12 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Feel-Good-Movie, 8 November 2005

Author: kattue from Germany

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Trish Doolan has made an awesome, romantic Comedy about people, with all their insecurities, and love.

This movie isn't like some other lesbian-themed movies, it is excellent made, the actors are real good and the storyline isn't gloomy or self-destructive, but fast-paced and hilarious. But that is probably because this movie is about people, not just lesbians.

She plays Alex, a chef, preparing the perfect shower for her former roommate April. It all starts with a happy couple and some guests, who could be more different. Revealing that she and April had not only been roommates but lovers is the beginning of a chaos, that lets all people at the shower re-examine their own lives. In the end we have a burning house, a happy couple and this sensation of a real Feel-Good-Movie.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A bit of harmless fun, 7 November 2008

Author: heatherjg86-1 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

OK granted this isn't the best movie in the world but it left me with a smile on my face. Some of the characters wouldn't be out of place in a pantomime and it made up group of stereotypes that weren't necessary for the major plot but the comic effect was well worth it.

The best character in my opinion has got to be the mother, to go from proud, to devastated, to accepting and to happy all in the space of an hour (if only real life was so easy!). The only down side I can mention is the convoluted firemen having to save the day, There really was no need for them in this scenario but they were played to be idiots so....

If your looking for a light-hearted romance tale then this is well worth the watch.

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
OK with it until you start to think about it at the end, 17 October 2006

Author: ksmith818 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Where to begin with this movie that tried to be good, that I wanted to be good and that ended up not achieving either goal. I really liked this movie when I watched it, it kept me entertained, I laughed at some of the comedy, and I was glad that there was a happy ending. But upon further reflection I was entertained by a shoddy story, there wasn't enough laughter and the ending didn't make sense and now seems a little forced.

So what went wrong? I think this movie had too many story lines trying to compete for attention and so to fit them all in leaps had to be made to move them along and those leaps made them feel artificial. Like the story line about the mother finding out that her daughter is a lesbian. First there's a fight, then the mother prays to the saints for her daughter to not be gay, then she can't understand why her daughter is gay, then all she wants is for her happiness and finally she schemes to get her daughter and the main character together. Now all these points along a plot would be tough to tackle in its own movie let alone tackling along with 10 other plot points, so by the end we have a converted mother who we never really could see or understand why she converted when she did.

This alone is frustrating except when you add people who don't progress very far, as one reviewer said one dimensional characters who only stick to their one ad nauseum story and then hook ups left and right that don't make sense. And then the ending where (stay with me) the lesbian turns straight, the straight becomes a lesbian (again) and the gay guy gets a few stereotypical lines about a dress fitting him. All in all a frustrating movie that has too many stories going on and at the end too little going for it in the way of believability...

Argh!

11 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
a bluntly annoying exercise in morality, 11 January 2006

Author: samseescinema from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

April's Shower

reviewed by Sam Osborn

rating: .5 out of 4

Working as the Director, Writer, and Lead Actress, the failure of April's Shower weighs primarily on Trish Doolan's shoulders. This is a miserable film from start to finish; melodrama not worthy of even daytime cable television. And in the midst of such subtle, humanistic portrayals of homosexuality (Brokeback Mountain, Walk on Water, De-Lovely, Capote, etc.), April's Shower stands as a bluntly annoying exercise in morality.

As its title suggests, Doolan's creation documents the outlandish happenings at April's (Maria Cina) wedding shower. It opens tamely enough; with Alex (Trish Doolan) scrambling to finish the myriad of dishes she's cooked for April's party, guests slowly trickling in one by one. Each of these guests has only one agenda and they each spout this agenda over and over and over again in some strange and grating attempt at repetition humor. For instance, one woman has lost her baby and is trying for another. She wanders around bemoaning her inability to become impregnated, yelping in tears whenever somebody mentions a child. Another is a psychotherapist who constantly dishes out unintentionally funny "therapeutic" advice, handing out her business card with every turn of a character's frown. None of these characters have depth past this one dimension. When they all gather around later, in Doolan's attempt mimic the great back-and-forth girl talk of, say, Sex and the City, each character seems to be talking to herself, repeatedly offering the same advice or lamenting the same loss. This is one dimensional writing at its worst.

As the party continues on and April strides in feigning surprise (she knew of the party in secret beforehand), it's soon revealed that April and Alex were once passionate lovers. Here we're presented with Doolan's rendition of tension between homosexuals and heterosexuals. Her strokes are broad and blatantly without passion. It's as though she has no interest in delving into these problems, but simply labeling them and denouncing them as a whole. In one instance, April's mother is shocked to find her daughter once was a lesbian and prays to an alter and a muttered Saint. Later we find her having a heart-to-heart with another mom and soon April and her mother are reconciled and she accepts her daughter's homosexuality. There are good intentions here, sure; but no sentiment or enthusiasm. The small zest Doolan does contain she throws into the bouncy, sitcom-esquire score that flips about all the scenes posing as comedic.

In fact, the comedy is sometimes the most maddening aspect of April's Shower. Doolan refuses to allow her audience to be absorbed within her drama; instead hesitating and falling back to half-hearted comedy at every drop of a tear. Her humor is assuredly unfunny and detracts from whatever fragment of heartfelt drama she might have mustered. In some cases, her humor even undermines the morals she's forcing into view. One young girl begins asking each of the guests if they've ever kissed another female. Eventually, when one character takes the cue and leans in to kiss her, the young girl's closet-opening moment is made into a gaudy bit of weary satire. One scene later, we're back to solemnly discussing the tension of hiding the characters' homosexuality.

It's frustrating to see such a screwball mess result from a justly capable premise. Where Doolan's characters and story threads could be thoughtfully interwoven, they're instead pieced together with desperate, clumsy hands that would rather reach to the moon for a laugh than take a glance at the real world and find honest drama. Where good intentions and smart messages should be injected with subtle grace among the narrative, they're made centerpiece, forcing unearned melodrama out of what could have been quietly forceful developments.

I wanted to like April's Shower. I hoped for it to work as a superbly modern entry into the recent wave of gay/lesbian film. But even when the production values reached skywards with smooth and richly colorful camera work, April's Shower still broke down quicker than a rusty lawnmower. Its fault is in its creator. Trish Doolan's film shows that her understanding of film's elementary elements falls frightfully below rudimentary. Her intentions and ideals are good and fine, but her execution on them is dirt poor at best. All the characters scream and guffaw and squirt tears, but forget their duty is to spark these same reactions from the audience. We're left bored and weary from the crying shoulders and clunky messages, checking our watches at the end of each scene, wondering when the teary mess of April's Shower will finally be done with.

13 out of 70 people found the following review useful:
Stinkeroo!, 18 July 2006

Author: Lizzie-20 from Chicago, Illinois

Wow this was bad. The only reason I rented it in the first place was because I went to school with Lara Harris (she plays Kelly, and what a horrible English accent! Stick to modeling, Lara!) I couldn't even get through the whole thing and didn't even realize it was about lesbians until I came here to read the reviews. That's how bad it was. I rented it via Netflix and 20 minutes into it, ejected the smelly thing from my DVD and immediately mailed it back. Ack, it was awful! The characters were one-dimensional at best. Porn star named Spring Dawn? Gay sidekick? Obnoxious materialistic straight friend? Slacker brother? Dare I go on? I didn't even see the main character April or her fiancé Paulie on screen because I didn't get that far. As God is my witness, I shall never rent another movie without reading more reviews!

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