Yes, I felt she was a lesbian. But the movie never makes it clear. Maybe in the book it's explained more?

No I think she was a straight girl. The one scene in question isn't enough to mean otherwise, and she was checking out guys at the party early on.

IMO, yeah, she was a lesbian, and hiding it. Her comments at the party were to throw people off. She seemed really nervous when Kevin came to her place, and saw her g.friend. She blamed it on smoking but she didn't seem high in the least.

It appears from that scene that she was. However, before they arrived at the party in the beginning, she mentions something about finding an educated man.

Hilariously enough what makes me laugh after coming back to this thread after so long, is that Lisa was actually a MAN in the book (she was Maggie's younger brother who was still in college).
Now, if Phil (his name in the book) had been in that apartment with another man, smoking weed, regardless if candles were lit or not, would the same over-reaching to make the two men gay be going on, I wonder?

We've become a race of peeping toms.

So she has a female friend over her house for a visit and that means she's a lesbian. Do you ever have male friends over your house, maybe you're gay too.
Also, in the beginning at Franks' party she's seen checking out guys.

If she was a client then why did Lisa say they'd just smoked a huge amount of pot and Tom was freaking her out because of it? I don't think she'd be smoking with a client but hmm. She did refuse to hypnotize Tom at first because you're "not supposed to mesmerize people who've been drinking."
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No, that was probably one of her clients. I got the vibe that she read fortunes or something. Definitely not a lesbian, why was she checking out guys in one of the early scenes?

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There is no talk about her - Lisa - having a boyfriend and over all the way she interacts with Tom, reminds me of the interaction between
two buddies or a brother and a sister.
What you just said solved your problem, Lisa is Toms sister-in-law. I'd think it would be only natural to treat Lisa like his own sister/buddy. I myself am really close to my brother-in-law, and i often hang out like we are good friends. What you were seeing was just as that, nothing more. Not to mention what everyone else has said about her comments at the party and of her tarot card readings.
I didn't get any vibes whatsoever of her being bisexual/or gay. But it could go either way really.
Not that i'm homophobic, or anything, just so you know

Actually, we do know she's not lesbian, as the OP asked, and as I said before.

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That's my point, that there's no point either way, other than perhaps to show the sister was loyal to her brother in law, such that she'd drop what she was doing in order to help him.
And yes, she could be bi, but that's not really the subject of this thread (literally or figuratively). Lesbians are not sexually attracted to men. Ergo, the answer to the OP is an emphatic NO.

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I assumed she was a client, and was angry when asked to give up her appointment in favor of Bacon's character.
TBH, the thought of them being lovers never even occurred to me until I read this thread, especially since she was clearly trolling for men earlier in the film.
You asked what was her purpose in the story. What's the purpose in adding a lesbian twist that had zero to do with the rest of the story?
Perhaps someone who speaks Spanish can shed some further light on what happened.

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So any time two women are alone together, we're to assume they're lesbians, even though there were no sexual overtones?

I also think that she was bisexual. The director wouldn't place that scene if he didn't want us to think about it. Obviously, he wanted us to think - Tom (Kevin Bacon) goes to his sister in law's place, finds her with another beatiful, latina woman. Nothing wrong about her being bisexual, but it is a fact that Koepp was trying to make us wonder, in that particular scene.

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Yes, I did get the feeling she was a lesbian.
What I find amazing, though, is this topic currently has the most responses. Poor underrated Stir of Echoes deserves as much interest as the Sixth Sense.
But, yeah, I think she was a lesbian.

Her Latina Friend, she is Argentinian. I'm from Argentina and that's totally an Argentinian way of talking!
watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFccwK7vwVc or search "mfp22" to see all my videos.

Apparently the editors didn't think much about it either since "lesbians" is not in the Plot Keywords list (and just about everything else is). Assume that the answer isn't any more necessary than the question
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"In an earlier version of David Koepp's script Maggie Witzky's hypnotist sister Lisa was actually a brother called Philip" So says the trivia.
I'm kinda thinking, maybe the scene where Lisa is with that girl was the same in the earlier version therfore a hetrosexual relationship, but once the character was changed the scene wasnt hinting on a bisexual or homosexual relationship.
The only person to really ask the question to is the writer, but while watching the film last night she didnt really come across to me as bi or gay. Infact i was too into Tom's storyline. However the non english speaking girl did throw me a little.

According to the director's commentary on the DVD, this is the idea he was going for (the woman playing Lisa's girlfriend was actually the director's wife!)
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