Late Bloomers.

Lanky, low-key, 40-ish, and single, Dinah Groshardt (Connie Nelson) teaches geometry and coaches the girls' basketball team at a suburban Bible Belt high school. During moments of upset, she quietly dribbles a basketball. Chubby 40-ish mother of two Carly Lumpkin (Dee Hennigan) is the principal's secretary. Her marriage to the school's algebra teacher lost what little spark it had a long time ago, and her resultant lack of self-esteem is marked by an adolescent giddiness and a tendency to binge on snack foods.

When the women's newfound friendship segues into love and the two decide to start a new life together, the community wastes no time in going ballistic. Dinah and Carly lose their jobs, become local pariahs, and are subjected to such intense pressure that their relationship is threatened. The solution? They throw themselves a wedding and invite everyone in town. Prejudices soon melt like icing in the sun, reconciliation reigns supreme, and everyone--with the exception of a few pesky fundamentalists--comes to learn that true love knows no gender.

Directed by Julia Dyer, written by her sister, Gretchen, and edited by the two--a third sibling, Stephen Dyer, is one of the producers--the low-budget, independently made Late Bloomers was cast and shot entirely in Dallas. The movie is good-looking and technically proficient, but its simplistic, cartoonish style, one-size-fits-all plot resolution, and relentlessly feel-good treatment steamroll the complex issues it raises into pancake flatness--resulting in a comedy with a terminal case of the cutes.

Awkwardly staged, sluggishly paced, and gratingly scored, Late Bloomers is not without its effective moments. Most occur when Dinah is onscreen, thanks to Dallas theater actress Nelson's unadorned, feet-on-the-ground performance. And while Hennigan is clearly talented, she doesn't fare nearly as well, having armed Carly--on whom the focus of the story is squarely placed--with an arsenal of neurotic tics that would give pause to the heroine of a Tennessee Williams play.

The characters of Dinah and Carly will surely strike a chord with the vast number of lesbians who consider themselves part of mainstream, workaday America and who don't relate to the hip, urban-dyke environments of films such as Go Fish. In fact, had the Dyers allowed their serviceable story and characters to develop naturally, without consideration of the movie's crossover potential, they might have had a crossover hit.

But despite all its shortcomings, Late Bloomers can't be accused of having an insincere bone in its body. The movie's heart is so clearly emblazoned on its sleeve that sophisticated lesbian and gay viewers may suffer guilt pangs if they find themselves shifting in their seats, rolling their eyes, or waiting politely for the house lights to go on before bolting up the aisle.