If women kissing is something you don't want to see, Better Than Chocolate is not a movie for you. If women making love is something you don't want to see, don't see this movie. But if you want to see a wonderful movie, see Better Than Chocolate.

Director Anne Wheeler and writer Peggy Thompson have created a complex tale that is much more than just the story of two young women meeting and falling in love. Karyn Dwyer is Maggie, who has dropped out of college at 19 to experience life and follow her dreams. She is working in a bookstore that specializes in lesbian erotica and performing along with a pre-operative transsexual named Judy when she gets a phone call from her mother. Wendy Crewson's Lila is coming to town with Maggie's brother Paul in tow, as her marriage to Maggie's step-father has broken up. Since Maggie is sleeping on a sofa at the bookstore, this presents problems.

Before Mom and Paul get to town Maggie meets Kim (Christina Cox) who is an artist passing through town. Kim gets Maggie to sit for a portrait and there is an instant connection between the two of them. Soon Maggie, Kim, Lila and Paul are all sharing the converted warehouse loft that Maggie has sublet.

There is far more here than just the difficulties that exist between two lovers when one hasn't yet told her mother that she's a lesbian. Better Than Chocolate explores the relationships that people can and do develop long before they really know that much about one another. It reminds us that there are many adults in our society who are not just sexually repressed, but completely unaware of just how wide the sexual pendulum can swing. It gives us several lesbian archetypes and then spends some time disproving the whole notion of the stereotyping so many people engage in. It points out that even in 1999, some forms of expression that most wouldn't blink at are still considered (wrongly so) to be obscene by some.

My only complaint with all the various plotpoints was that the movie wasn't longer so that it could go further in-depth into the complexities of the people whose lives are examined.

Dwyer and Cox aren't just attractive. They bring levels of emotion and intensity to their work here and are excellent. Crewson is very good as the woman scorned, who is going through the lows and highs of post-marriage depression. But Peter Outerbridge steals every scene he is in. He treats the issue of transsexuality with a quiet dignity that brought an incredible amount of believability to his performance. Like Terrence Stamp in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, he makes you believe he is what he is portraying on screen.

There is no denying that there is sex in Better Than Chocolate. But it is isn't there just to titillate and excite. It drives the story forward.

The highest praise I know how to give to a movie is to say that I want to own my own copy. I will buy one of Better Than Chocolate when it hits video.