An occasionally bright, but mostly uninspired and inane Aussie hybridization of “Chasing Amy” and “Cyrano de Bergerac,” scribe-helmer-thesp Phillip Marzella’s “Low Fat Elephants” bounds down the by-now-very-familiar road of a conniving, gay twentysomething’s affection for a same-sex, straight friend. Pic never really gets into the meat of what could be an interesting subject — the fundamentally cruel actions that set its plot in motion. But as “Chasing Amy” has already been there too, pic may be too routine even for the historically indiscriminate gay niche aud.
Pic begins with pastry chef Greta (Tessa Well) confessing to the camera her love for roommate Cassandra (Karen Pang). Unable to bring herself to tell Cassandra the truth, she has instead devised a fictional secret admirer, Jean-Pierre, whose name gets signed to the bouquets of flowers and florid romantic poetry that Greta sends to Cassandra. In a singularly unsavory move, Greta “casts” out-of-work actor Yuri (Marzella) to “play” Jean-Pierre just long enough for him to meet and dump Cassandra, after which — Greta hopes — she will “turn gay” and return Greta’s advances. Natch, things go awry.
