On Their Knees

This is one of those coming of age, find yourself and get re-acquainted with a loved one movies. It's not a bad film.

However, it does slow down at times, even for a movie that's just a shade over 75 minutes long. Being Canadian, one of the fun parts of this film was trying to figure out the scenery. One of the funniest parts of this movie is Maury Chaykin as the unabashedly candid and crazy motel attendant who swears his mother is listening in on him all the time. Overall, this is not a bad movie.

Mo and Willie are half-sisters that were raised by their loving grandmother, Nan. She dies in a nursing home across Canada. The granddaughters decide that she should be buried near her family homestead across country. Mo borrows an ice cream truck and the girls steal the corpse in a body bag from the funeral home or morgue one night. They travel and stop at a motel where they encounter Maury Chakin, a strange motel operator. Willie gets a date that night. Mo and Willie get back on the truck and head cross country but they get broke and need money. They act criminally to get their beloved Nan home and meet their relatives. It has a bittersweet ending but I never get where Sam fits into the family picture. The writer, director, and actress who plays Willie is remembered from her role on a popular Canadian show, Degrassi High. The actress who plays Mo does a believable and authentic job in making me care about her and Willie's relationship. There are some flaws but it's still a great film.

canada has produced a number of great road movies, and yes, some of them also involved dead bodies. on their knees is like this, but its not that great. but there are some moments in the movie that work well. there are a couple of well executed camera movements, and super 8 footage and the actress playing mo did a good job.

at the same time, however, the movie felt really long, it dragged on in the third act, and clocks in well under 90 minutes. and there are some really bad camera shots in it as well, the exposure doesn't match.

overall, its very hit and miss, and its on a minute by minute basis. its certainly canadian, we have been around for a while making unique qwerky little films. in the very least, on their knees can be filed there.