The Canadian invasion continues on Reel 13 with yet another Canuck indie. This one is written by the same writer (Daniel MacIvor) as the worst Reel 13 film of all WILBY WONDERFUL. Fortunately for us, they got a different director for this film (Wiebke von Carolsfeld), but he (or she, I suppose) doesn't seem to help much. On the whole, the direction is overly theatrical and uninspired. Where WILBY WONDERFUL was contrived and had a silly sitcom vibe about it, MARION BRIDGE is bleak, melodramatic, mostly lifeless, painfully slow and very, very dull.
The story of MARION BRIDGE, as based on MacIvor's own play, is centered around three sisters (it is my feeling that the connection to Chekhov is no accident) who reunite over the impending death of their mother. Each sister has their own issue: one is a recovering drug/alcohol abuser, the other is an overly maternal, rigid middle-aged woman recently out of a long relationship and the third is a lazy, closeted lesbian. One thing I'll say for Marion Bridge is that its characters are all well-defined, but the actresses' interpretations of these characters have varied results.
I'm sorry to say that Rebecca Jenkins is back as the eldest, uptight sister. She proves that her annoyingness in WILBY WONDERFUL was not a fluke. She was grating then, she is grating here and at no point do I believe any emotion she is trying to portray. She is the perfect example of a surface actress nothing going on underneath. She says the words, but does not play the role with her whole self. Molly Parker fares a little better with the recovering drug abuser sister. She is pretty and mostly likable, but she forces the character's weaker moments. And honestly, at no point do I really get a sense of the character's dark past nor do I ever believe that the character presented by Parker ever really did drugs and alcohol. Stacy Smith, with her limited screen time, actually gives the most complete performance of the sisters as the lazy lesbian. She's believable and interesting it's almost sad that she is the forgotten sister by the playwright and director. It should come as no surprise, however, that the best performance in the whole film belongs to Ellen Page, in a supporting role, as a random girl that the sisters almost seem to stalk. For those of you who think Juno might have been an accident, MARION BRIDGE (and HARD CANDY) is here to tell you that she is the real deal.
MARION BRIDGE fails to capture the attention of the audience early on and never really finds any burst of energy after that. The pain within the film is real, but it fails to be very engaging or interesting (It doesn't help that the video transfer seemed faded the color palette seemed very bleak and muted). Furthermore, the revelation of the film's very dark secret was extremely anti-climactic. It could have been a very interesting twist in the film (it was in CHINATOWN), but here, it's very ho-hum. The result is I didn't really care about the characters or their predicament. With that said, however, there is a moment at the very end of the film where the title song finally comes in (apparently it's a famous Canadian tune) and the director offers us a nice surprise in a wide shot that actually brought tears even to these cold, unfeeling eyes. Sadly, one good moment does not a film make and MARION BRIDGE failed to take full advantage of its potential, which is always a shame.
The story of MARION BRIDGE, as based on MacIvor's own play, is centered around three sisters (it is my feeling that the connection to Chekhov is no accident) who reunite over the impending death of their mother. Each sister has their own issue: one is a recovering drug/alcohol abuser, the other is an overly maternal, rigid middle-aged woman recently out of a long relationship and the third is a lazy, closeted lesbian. One thing I'll say for Marion Bridge is that its characters are all well-defined, but the actresses' interpretations of these characters have varied results.
I'm sorry to say that Rebecca Jenkins is back as the eldest, uptight sister. She proves that her annoyingness in WILBY WONDERFUL was not a fluke. She was grating then, she is grating here and at no point do I believe any emotion she is trying to portray. She is the perfect example of a surface actress nothing going on underneath. She says the words, but does not play the role with her whole self. Molly Parker fares a little better with the recovering drug abuser sister. She is pretty and mostly likable, but she forces the character's weaker moments. And honestly, at no point do I really get a sense of the character's dark past nor do I ever believe that the character presented by Parker ever really did drugs and alcohol. Stacy Smith, with her limited screen time, actually gives the most complete performance of the sisters as the lazy lesbian. She's believable and interesting it's almost sad that she is the forgotten sister by the playwright and director. It should come as no surprise, however, that the best performance in the whole film belongs to Ellen Page, in a supporting role, as a random girl that the sisters almost seem to stalk. For those of you who think Juno might have been an accident, MARION BRIDGE (and HARD CANDY) is here to tell you that she is the real deal.
MARION BRIDGE fails to capture the attention of the audience early on and never really finds any burst of energy after that. The pain within the film is real, but it fails to be very engaging or interesting (It doesn't help that the video transfer seemed faded the color palette seemed very bleak and muted). Furthermore, the revelation of the film's very dark secret was extremely anti-climactic. It could have been a very interesting twist in the film (it was in CHINATOWN), but here, it's very ho-hum. The result is I didn't really care about the characters or their predicament. With that said, however, there is a moment at the very end of the film where the title song finally comes in (apparently it's a famous Canadian tune) and the director offers us a nice surprise in a wide shot that actually brought tears even to these cold, unfeeling eyes. Sadly, one good moment does not a film make and MARION BRIDGE failed to take full advantage of its potential, which is always a shame.