Desert Hearts

The story is not sensationalistic, although its love scene could not be more emotional. It`s a gentle story of someone being brought in from the cold.

This is an astonishingly polished and nuanced first film. It deserves to be celebrated, not quibbled with.

Though not without problems, Desert Hearts is a triumph for director Donna Deitch and an inspiration for any independent filmmaker.

Given the low budget, there was no money for transitions or fancy wideshots, so the look is strangled, stranded and somehow like stagework. All the same, if you are a woman who loves women, you will no doubt love Desert Hearts. But it doesn't seem a good bet to cross over. [18 Apr 1986, p.27]

I might have enjoyed Desert Hearts more if it had been more subtle and observant about the two women. It might have been a better movie if it had been about discovery instead of seduction.

Desert Hearts has no voice or style of its own. It's as flat as a recorded message from the telephone company.

For a story about sexual awakening and discovery, Desert Hearts is a taut, fatally careful movie with no looseness--and no abandon--to it and no feeling for detail that would let these characters really live.