Closing Numbers Movie Review

Strong performances and mature story lines distinguished many of 1994's entries at the 18th Annual International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The highlight of Stephen Whittaker's Closing Numbers is a bravura performance by the much underrated Jane Asher, who hasn't had this meaty a role since she made Deep End with Jerzy Skolimowski in 1970. Asher plays a happily married wife and mother without a clue that her husband is bisexual until she confronts the man with whom he's been having an affair. THEY'VE been having safe sex, the lover tells her, but SHE is at risk because of unprotected one-night stands in her husband's past. She reacts with rage at first, then numbly continues with the routine of her life, with a few differences. She has an HIV test and is introduced by the lover to working with one of his AIDS patients. All the while, her husband remains in deep denial, and their son is extremely hostile to his parent's much-changed relationship. Asher's beautifully drawn study of a woman in limbo is unforgettable.

1993 95m/C GB Jane Asher, Tim Woodward, Patrick Pearson, Nigel Charnock; D: Stephen Whittaker; W: David Cook; C: Nicholas D. Knowland.