The Lost Girls

Lost and Delirious

Director: Lea Pool 

Cast: Piper Perabo, Jessica Pare, Mischa Barton

Released: January 21, 2001

This is a small, independent Canadian film that I came across in the early hours of late 2002 when I couldn't sleep and sauntered out to my couch and turned on the TV to watch something. At the time I was getting HBO for free (I wasn't stealing it...they just never noticed that they were providing me it. I didn't have it for long, but it was fun to watch Sex and the City episodes while I did).  Anyway, while I was flipping through channels, I came across this movie on HBO and since it was the only thing on besides info-mercials and paid programming, I started watching. Funnily enough, I came across this movie again not that long after and I started watching about the exact same time when I first saw it. Watching it this time was the first time I saw it in its entirety, but I only missed the first ten minutes, so it wasn't like I missed a huge chunk of it.

A pre-The O.C., post The Sixth Sense Mischa Barton plays Mary, a new student at an all-girls boarding school. Her mother died three years ago and it was her step-mother's idea to send her to this school. (Just like it was her step-mother's idea to poison her in The Sixth Sense, heh). Her nickname is Mouse because she is timid and quiet and she seems to be okay with such a pathetic sorry excuse of a nickname because when she introduces herself, she always says, "My name is Mary, but everyone calls me Mouse." Um, why would you tell anyone that? Especially when you're at a new place and nobody knows that? Luckily her new friends realize what a stupid nickname that is and christen her with a new one, Mary Brave.

Her new friends are her roommates Paulie (Piper Perabo) and Tori (Jessica Pare - there's suppose to be an accent above the e, but I don't know how to do that) who are more than roommate, more than friends. Let's just say that this movie is the female version of Brokeback Mountain (complete with tragic ending). 

Mary isn't aware of just how close they are until she looks out the window and sees Paulie and Tori making out on the roof. They also get intimate in one of their beds in the same room which would be awkward for anyone having to listen to that whether it be a heterosexual or homosexual couple. Seriously, why would you do that with a third party in the room? 

Tori tells Mary that she and Paulie refer to themselves as "The Lost Girls", like the Lost Boys from Peter Pan. Now when she said "Lost Boys," I thought at first she was referring to the Corey Feldman/Cory Haim vampire movie. That would have been so much better, don't you think? Funnier, at least.

Mini Emily Thorne....Amanda
Clarke....er, whoever she's
supposed to be.

Tori's younger sister and her friends sometimes like to burst into the room to wake the girls up. They just so happen to do that one morning and catch Paulie in Tori's bed in her underwear. Now if they knew that Tori's sister and her friends had a habit of doing that and if they often slept together in the same bed nearly naked, wouldn't they think to lock the door? Just in case? Duh. Sometimes people don't use common sense. Of course if they didn't lock the door, then we wouldn't get that scene and Tori's sister shocked face. While watching the movie, I kept thinking, "Why does that girl look so familiar? I KNOW her from somewhere." Well, she is played by Emily Van Camp, the star of Revenge (which I stopped watching mid-season 2 because I just didn't care anymore).  She is very young in this, probably 13 or 14. But for the life of me I couldn't place her and it was driving me crazy until I saw and recognized her name in the end credits. 

Tori tells her sister that nothing happened, that Paulie had a nightmare and crawled into her bed, that they are just friends. She also tells Paulie that they can't do this anymore, that they are just friends. Tori comes from a family that wouldn't approve of her having a girlfriend and starts flirting with a guy who has a crush on her from a nearby boys school. Since everybody is still skeptical about hers and Paulie's relationship, she goes out with the guy and has sex with him against a tree (it was in the dark, but still) and both Mary and Paulie witness this. What a sluty lesbian! 

While jogging, Paulie comes across an injured falcon and nurses him back to help. The falcon symbolizes Polly - a soaring individual whose spirit has been broken and must be rescued. Paulie goes into warrior mode and vows to get back Tori's love - and she goes to some pretty extreme lengths, like dressing up as a knight and reading a poem to her in a loud voice while Tori is in the library or cutting in on Tori and her father at the annual father/daughter dance. In the end, Paulie's broken heart can't take it anymore and she makes a big show off committing suicide when she beckons her healed falcon to her on the roof of the school so everyone is looking at her before she falls to her death.