This low-budget independent film went straight to DVD after several years of not finding a studio willing to distribute it. This is a shame, because this little film, despite its flaws, deserves a larger audience than just those lucky enough to discover it on Amazon. It is one of those few movies that tries to accurately portray the nudist lifestyle and for that alone the film deserves our support.

The story starts with a phone call between two grown daughters who didn’t know the other existed. The birth daughter, Charlie (Liz Lytle), tell Leah the adopted daughter (played by Katie L. Hall, who also co-produced and co-wrote the movie), that their father has just died at a place called Bare Lake in Arizona, and they both need to drive there to pick up his ashes and receive their inheritance.

The two women couldn’t be more different. Struggling artist Charlie is bitter that her father abandoned her and her mother many years before. Leah, a financial analyst, grew up with fond memories of her father and his second wife. Both women are shocked to discover their inheritance is the Bare Lakes resort itself – a nudist park!

While there are abundant cliché moments (i.e. over-staring) as the two women adapt to seeing so much skin around them, the script follows their own journey from repulsion at the very idea that their father had a secret life, to tentative acceptance of both the lifestyle and also of each other’s existence. Unfortunately the script is uneven and may suffer from too many writers and too much editing and re-editing because the plot at times seems to jump without showing us why certain events occur.

The natural tension that should exist between the two women is there, and then it isn’t and then it is again. Also, Leah appears to embrace her skin in one scene, then returns to clothes in the next scene (and for several thereafter) without explanation. It would have been far better had one sister assimilated faster than the other to add more tension and provide a better foundation for the scene where the two discuss their body flaws.

Two other scenes where Bear Valley members disclose the girls’ father had an affair with Lauren, the lifeguard, could have been done better had they discovered a note to them from their father when going through his personal things describing the open relationship he had with Leah’s mother, and also his hopes and plans for Bare Valley once the girls took it over. The “my dad has business plan and we can make this work” cliché at the end comes out of nowhere and seems odd, since the park is obviously not doing well – why didn’t he implement the business plan himself before?

Many nudists have also pointed out a few behavioral faux pauxs as well, such as not having the nude actors sitting on their towels, and seeing people drinking from glass beer bottles in the pool/hot tub area. (The director insists the bottles were plastic, but they sure clinked like glass in the movie!) The major behavioral faux paux is having the Bear Lakes staff constantly badgering the two sisters to remove their clothing. In most parks today, staff would not be so rude, especially when the newcomers where the new park owners!

Despite these annoying script errors, the nudist community has come to embrace the film. The amenities of Olive Dell Ranch in Colton, where it was filmed, is depicted quite nicely with its quaint birdhouse cabins and rolling green hills. The “river” scenes were filmed at Deep Creek, a popular nudist hot springs about an hour north of Olive Dell.

The actors seem just fine appearing comfortably nude for most of the film, despite some visible tan lines. The director obviously went to great length to not film their pubic areas by using clever camera angles and strategically placed plants, computers, and towels. To his credit, he didn’t use pixilation or blurring, which are anathema to nudists. That said, there are plenty of breasts and butt shots to adequately convey the fact we are visiting a nudist park.

The film is well supported by three veteran character actors, who give the script some gravitas. Susan May Pratt (Open Water 2, 10 Things I Hate About You) plays Kristi, the perky general manager whose personal journey to body acceptance because of her scars from a fire adds depth to her commitment to keeping Bare Creek open. Rob Roy Fitzgerald, a fine character actor (Thelma & Louise, Saving Grace) plays the on-site lawyer, Rusty, with just the right amount of ham. Another well-known face, Alan Cox (Young Sherlock Holmes, Frost/Nixon) plays Cory, the gay cook with a nice comic touch without going “over the top.”

Rounding out the supporting characters are Josh McVaney as Trevor (Leah’s love interest), Sandi Alexandru (who is also co-producer) as Natalie, the housekeeper, and Courtney Abbott as Lauren, the lifeguard (who had the affair with the sisters’ father.) Some of the film’s serious moments explore these characters and their individual reasons for choosing to live in a nudist environment. As such, the script succeeds in an honest depiction of what typical nudists really are like, while avoiding the defensive preachy-ness found in earlier nudist movies as Educating Julie.

A number of real-life Olive Dell nudists fill in the background: David Cheek shows us his butt walking past the sisters in several scenes, Becki Kilborn is seen enthusiastically twirling a hula hoop, and Bobby Kilborn, Olive Dell’s owner, is seen cheerfully mowing his lawn alongside Bare Creek’s restaurant, named “Fudists” (is that bad pun the best the script writers could come up with?).

I may be nit-picking here, but I found the sound track choices quite inconsistent. There is an abundance of lighter instrumentals that fit the Bare Creek lifestyle well early in the film (and should have been continued throughout), but it gives way to darker vocal tracks later by Laura Threk and Sahah Hotsschlog later that seem out of place. An example of a weird choice of lyrics, sung to the sound of a heavy rhythmic drumbeat: “If you’re gonna shoot me, Shoot me in a red dress, If you’re gonna shoot me at all.” I am sure the soundtrack will appeal to the younger viewers. But this is essentially a comedy, and music tracks are poorly chosen for the on-screen moment.

Also the secondary track containing the comments of both the director and the cast comes across more like a reunion party, rather than containing much useful information about how the film was made and the struggles the team encountered getting it filmed over an 18-month period with numerous re-takes and production challenges. This was an opportunity lost to educate other independent filmmakers about the nuts and bolts of putting together a film with little money and a cast that hung in out of loyalty.

In 2011, after the final edits were made, the producers found they could not get any studios interested in distributing the film. So they embarked on a nationwide series of premier showings at rented local theaters to drum up local enthusiasm. Despite winning the Audience Choice award at the 6th Annual United Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2011 and then doing it again in London, Riley and the others still could not find a buyer. The film has gone straight to DVD.

Despite its predictable script and other annoyances cited above, Act Naturally is definitely worth supporting. I encourage everyone to go to the Act Naturally Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/actnaturallymovie to purchase a copy so these courageous producers and actors and make their money back. Hopefully their success may encourage other film producers to address the subject matter again in the future.