BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Irishchatter I absolutely loved hearing what came out of Dukakis' mouth. Seriously my jaws were hurt with laughter with the amount of curse words she was using on people. Man she really did play a butch lesbian really well and like it wouldn't be hard to love her character. Frickers character was brillant too, omg I absolutely laughed at the scene where she accidentally hit the hitchhikers fathers balls with her head, when she thought that she was sleeping with her partner. Seriously Brenda Fricker can play a blind person really well, especially with a lot of humour! I even thought Doucette's character was super good as the hitchhiker and of course, he was very handsome which is a bonus ;P Really though, he was brillant too!All actors were brilliant including Kristin Booth as the granddaughter. I have to admit though in the end, it was sad and unexpected when Frickers character died and the fact that both women didn't get a chance to have a proper wedding ceremony but it taught us that love never died with those two women! I give this 9/10!

lasttimeisaw Outburst with expletives, bottoms and balls (literally, a blind lady has her head jammed between a naked man's thighs), Thom Fitzgerald's CLOUDBURST is not for the prude, adapted from his own awards-winning eponymous play, it is an atypical queer film illustrating a life-affirming story about an elderly lesbian couple, Stella and Dotty, played respectively by two Oscar winning actress Dukakis (MOONSTRUCK, 1987) and Fricker (MY LEFT FOOT, 1989).Stella and Dotty have been living together for 31 years, during which period Dotty has become blind. When Dotty's self-seeking granddaughter Molly (Booth) puts her in a nursing home, so as to secure the proprietorship of their property, a feisty Stella spirits Dotty away, they embark a road trip from Maine to Nova Scotia to get married. En route they pick up a young hitchhiker Prentice (Doucette), a guileless dancer-cum-stripper, who is on his way to visit his dying mother Cat (O'Brien), eventually, he becomes their best man and officiate their matrimony.From MOONSTRUCK to CLOUDBURST, hats off to Ms. Dukakis, edging 80-years-old during the filming, she takes up the gauntlet to play the larger-than-life butch dyke stereotype. Stella takes no prisoners in safeguarding her beloved Dotty, she is outspoken, indomitable and uncompromising, with a mouth can put even the most coarse sailor in the shade. She can also be mischievous and tender-heart-ed, the moments when she and Dotty share their rapport and emancipate their affections can be effectively and concurrently heart-warming and tear-jerking.Ms. Fricker, hides her Irish accent and counterbalances Stella's panache with her more inwardly- radiated warmness, the blind is often the wiser, but she is not a clichéd femme either, when it comes to the crunch, even Stella balks at their future, she remains firm and we realize who is the real decision-maker. Mr. Doucette, reprises his role in the play, is sidelined mostly as a comic relief in spite of his own misery and an eye-candy to offset the senescence-skewing melancholy which has been loomed around since the very onset.Mr. Fitzgerald doesn't try to sugarcoat a feel-good ending, since certain things cannot be sidestepped at that stage of life (as the title implies), instead, he chooses to instill laughter and hope in those darkest hours, to celebrate their fulfilled love, something only those lucky ones can have. Varnished with the golden-filtered palette and the awe-inspiring vista along their journey, no wonder CLOUDBURST is a massive crowd-pleaser in terms of its boutique license.

mark.waltz The irrepressible Olympia Dukakis has really broken ground in her relatively short time as an Oscar winning celebrity. Playing a transsexual apartment owner who left new tenants home made joints, the mother of a transsexual lesbian and the seller of tickets at the "Let's take a wack at Ouiser" booth was already a respected stage actress when she struck gold as Cher's mother. Now, she's Stella, a no-nonsense self confessed dyke who is determined to hold onto the love of her life, and she will do all she can to marry her.A tickling game results in her lover Brenda Fricker being sent to a convalescent home. Practically beating up Fricker's uptight granddaughter and the local sheriff, Dukakis sneaks Fricker out and heads up to Canada, and like Thelma and Louise, they pick up a hunky hitchhiker, but there's no hanky or panky going on. "You're barking up the wrong fire hydrant", Dukakis tells him as he shows off his goods."If that skirt was any shorter, you'd need another hairnet" is perhaps the mildest comment Dukakis says, shocking a very Christian Canadian who picks her up hitchhiking. Certainly, some people will take offense to what she says, but Dukakis refuses to betray who this broad is. Fricker is the more gentle of the two, but equally tough underneath her grandmotherly demeanor. Underneath her masculine exterior, Stella actually beats a heart of gold even though she can be at times very brusk.Delightfully non-politically correct, it is also extremely romantic in the sense of what Dukakis strives to achieve. Call this a gay "On Golden Pond" as seen through the eyes of Miss Apley, the old lesbian next door to Ethel and Norman Thayer. It is a triumph of determination that gets these two women through their ordeal, with Ryan Doucette in fine support as the surrogate son they find along the way. He's on his way home to see Hus dying mother and seems to be carrying his own secrets. Together, these three opposites share some dynamic adventures, and it ultimately is both bittersweet and funny, but never short of being amusingly human.

Paul Ingram This was an excellent movie. The 3 stars Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker and Ryan Doucette give outstanding performances and make the characters believable and interesting. Thom Fitzgerald takes a simple story and turns it into a wonderful journey with spectacular backdrops spectacular performances from his cast. In the course of 2 hours he is able to develop each of the main characters so that we really care about each of them. The minor Characters are a little cliché at times but it never takes away from the story or what makes this a great movie. The movie has course language but if you are not upset by this you will find yourself laughing and crying all within the length of the movie. Do yourself a favour and go see this!