Bridget Fonda does a fabulous job as Lesley Gore (thinly disguised) in Alison Anders’ 1996 movie “Grace of My Heart” – her version of what would have happened if Carole King had fallen in love with Brian Wilson after she divorced Gerry Goffin and moved to California in 1967. Bridget delivers a superb version of a song that Lesley wrote under a pseudonym, especially for the movie, “My Secret Love” – not to be confused with the Sammy Fain masterpiece sung by Doris Day in “Calamity Jane”.
Douglas and Kinset are excellent together; both are thrilled to be writing a gay song for a gay artist.
In the film, the song is written by the Carole King character, played by Ileana Douglas, and another female songwriter, played by Patsy Kinset, who could be an amalgam of the great female lyricists Elle Greenwich, Cynthia Weil, and Jackie Trent. Douglas and Kinset are excellent together: both are tickled pink that they are writing a gay song for a gay artist and that, apart from their female trinity, nobody else has a clue about the song’s real meaning.
While “Bridget/Lesley is singing the track in the recording booth, her partner, played by scene-stealer Lucinda Jenny, protectively watches her from the recording console and gives any red-blooded male who looks at “Lesley” in that way the fish eye!
Matt Dillon plays the Brian Wilson character. Eric Stoltz plays a philandering Gerry.
