Third time watching this and, now knowing Olive and Elizabeth’s love well enough to not be completely overwhelmed by it like the first two times, what stood out the most to me in this viewing was their characterisation. I just love their complexity and personal contradictions and the way their personalities play off each other.

Bill says that Olive is innocent, pure and kind and that Elizabeth is genius, fierce and a bitch. And that together they are the perfect woman. I don’t love the idea of merging them like that, and thankfully Bill said that at the start of their relationship, or otherwise I would think he completely missed the whole point of their dynamic. What’s fascinating about Olive and Elizabeth is precisely the fact that they’re two completely separate, independent, contrary women with two completely different energies. Yes they compliment each other but they never lose their identity. And it’s just so clever the way Elizabeth is first introduced as this self-empowered modern woman who rejects the patriarchy, and yet is the first to feel ashamed of their polyamory and their fetishes, whilst Olive is a young woman raised by nuns, who looks and acts like she’s never broken a rule in her life and yet is the least judgemental and the most open to new things and all types of love. In the end their character arcs lead them to be less uptight and more assertive, respectively, and it’s just so exciting to go on that journey as a female viewer. They are exactly the type of female characters I want everywhere.

I think I fell in love a little harder this time than the previous two, and this film has cemented its place in my heart.