Review: Romantic drama ‘And Then There Was Eve’ buries its relevance in a twist

Savannah Bloch takes a frustratingly roundabout way to tell a poignant story in her directorial debut, the queer romantic drama “And Then There Was Eve.” For all intents and purposes, we think we’re watching a film about a woman, Alyssa (Tania Nolan), grieving the loss of her husband, Kevin, and finding an unexpected romance with his “work wife” Eve (Rachel Crowl), a jazz pianist. That’s the simplest way to describe the plot, though the disjointed, surreal and dreamlike film style, which fluidly slides between memories and the present, fantasy and reality, suggests that not all is what it seems, despite appearances.

A third act reveal pulls back the curtain on an aspect of this story that makes this film so much more than just a moody and lyrical grief drama following Alyssa fumbling through her life in confusion and shock. This reveal also contains possibly the best aspect of this film, which is another layer to Crowl’s compelling performance. A transgender woman, Crowl embodies the full range of that experience beautifully on screen in “And Then There Was Eve,” although it’s maddeningly delegated to only the last minutes of the film.

This film deserves attention for tackling an aspect of the transgender experience that is not often seen on screen, and though it laudably casts a transgender actress, the story is framed through the perspective of a straight cis-woman, Alyssa. Something tells me it would have been much more interesting, and less narratively tortured, as seen through the eyes of Eve.

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‘And Then There Was Eve’

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Playing: Starts March 8, Laemmle Noho 7, North Hollywood

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