This film is based on a novel by Susan Swan, entitled "The Wives of Bath." Most of the action takes place in a girls' private school, attended by teenaged "Paulie" (played by Piper Perabo), "Tori" (played by Jessica Paré), and "Mouse" (played by Mischa Barton). Lonely, introverted Mouse is dropped off for the first time at boarding school. She is assigned to an attic bedroom, which she must share with Paulie and Tori. Paulie is confident, smart and emotionally intense, while Tori seems less so. The two young women are good friends; indeed, as Mouse discovers inadvertently one day, they are lovers.
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While Mouse keeps their secret, Tori's sister learns about the affair between Paulie and Tori, and threatens to reveal the truth to her parents. Tori, afraid of the consequences and of being labelled a lesbian, begins a relationship with a young man attending the nearby boys' private school.
Paulie, however, is intensely in love with Tori, and her emotions take on dramatic proportions as she challenges Tori's boyfriend to a duel outside the school grounds, recites romantic poetry to Tori in the library, and makes something of a scene at a parent-student dance. Paulie also starts to seek solace in the woods near the school, where she discovers an injured eagle and takes it "under her wing." Paulie seeks to heal her wounds and find the freedom that the eagle will eventually enjoy. In her emotionally tormented state, she realizes that Tori will remain ambivalent about her love for Paulie, and that Tori cannot resist homophobic peer pressure. The film ends in tragedy and lessons for the main characters in the nature of love and loss.
The review of this Movie prepared by Jan Arata