Josie: Ellen McLaughlin	Victoria: Monica Bell
Maria: Olivia Negron	Luce: Andrea Weber
Katie Kessler: Stacy Nelkin	Sarah: Carol Schneider
Gina: Gabriella Messina	Directed by: Sharon Pollack

30 Second Bottom Line: An agreeable but not very exciting experience, director Sharon Pollack's "Everything Relative" wastes much of the talent on display in this lesbian "Big Chill."

Story Line: "Everything Relative" concerns seven female friends who were students and feminist activists together in the late 1970's and early 80's. They reunite about 20 years later to celebrate the Bris for the son of two of the women, Katie (Stacy Nelkin) and Victoria (Monica Bell). Katie is the biological mother and Victoria is Katie's partner.

Of the seven friends, only one, Sarah (Carol Schneider), is heterosexual. However, even Sarah once had a fling with sexy stunt- woman Luce (Andrea Weber). When the friends leave the Bris for a weekend at Katie and Victoria's North Hampton summer home, it's important to keep the tangled histories …well, straight.

So here's the breakdown: Luce brings her current flame, 23-year-old Candy (Malindi Fickle), but Luce still pines for her lover who died in 1980. Gina (Gabriella Messina) also once had a thing with Luce, but it

seems to have ended rather bitter-sweet, as they share catty repartee as well as comforting words. They're the promiscuous members of the group.

Meanwhile, there's definitely some tension between former lovers Maria (Olivia Negron) and Josie (Ellen McLaughlin). During their relationship, Josie was an alcoholic. She has been in AA for four years. Maria left Josie to marry a man and start a family, but that ended with divorce and a custody battle won by Maria's ex-husband. Now, you're up to speed on the unresolved dramas that play out in "Everything Relative" over a North Hampton weekend of predictable reminiscing and reconciling.

Tell Me More About It: This plot run-down of "Everything Relative" should sound pretty familiar. The reuniting of old college buddies has been a staple of lazy screen writing since the indie success of John Sayles' 1980 "The Return of the Secaucus 7" and Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 box-office hit "The Big Chill." Of course, the twist of "Everything Relative" is that it deals with lesbian characters who are also post-Stonewall activists. But still, the point of gay cinema should be to come up with new stories and new ways of telling old stories. "Everything Relative" fails to vivify Queer experience for all viewers, gay or straight or whatever.

It's a wasted opportunity because talent and ideas are apparent from many of the collaborators involved in "Everything Relative." It's especially true of the uniformly excellent cast under director Pollack, who encourages a believable sense of camaraderie amongst the friends. She's very sensitive to allowing physical intimacies between the actresses to happen within the long takes photographed by Zak Othmer. I don't just mean the romantic or erotic moments. Pollack conveys a real sense of the way friends interact physically. She even pinpoints the change in body language amongst lesbians when straight people are around.

As a screenwriter, Pollack comes up with some intriguing ideas that are never really developed. For example, the friends all promise to help Maria with an appeal to get her kids back. My first thought was that this would make a much better story than the one in "Everything Relative"; dealing with a real social problem that carries some narrative suspense, while also dramatizing all of the conflicts within the group. It reveals the plot of "Everything Relative" to be a lazy one.

This lack of creativity is an affront to the characters' past as a political cabaret troupe - called The Urban Guerillas. Challenged to create a skit based on "municipal bonds," Josie sings the praises of "municipal bondage." A better director and writer would have used the improvisational skits as a formal device, as well as for inspiration for a more ingenious plot. Instead, Pollack even relies on the old device of a spontaneous baseball game to keep the movie moving.

There's a mantra that Josie and Maria repeat as they attempt to reconcile their past, "There's a lot of water under the bridge." "Everything Relative" is about how to deal with the disappointments of the past, while continuing the bonds formed throughout life. To do so, the friends create a ritual of letting the tide carry the burning candles they each place on the lake. It's the kind of ritual experience "Everything Relative" should be, but is not. Pollack never allows the

audience to form a bond with the characters. And, consequently, "Everything Relative" never provides the catharsis - the dramatic excitement - to begin to deal with the disappointments of the past.