Perfect Pie

Perfect Pie is a beautiful film about friendship. It weaves the past with the present and the stellar performances of the actresses make the trip through time seamless and enjoyable. Wendy Crewson's portrayal of Patsy is gentle and lovely while never allowing the audience to lose sight of the character's inner strength and determination. A "must see" movie for anyone who has ever had a best friend.

Francesca Prine, formerly Marie Beck (Barbara Williams) is a troubled famous opera singer. Her former best friend Patsy Willets (Wendy Crewson) invites her to sing in their hometown after thirty years of separation. In flashbacks, Marie (Alison Pill) and Patsy (Rachel McAdams) are the closest companions until Marie leaves an unconscious Patsy in the hospital permanently. They were ten when they first met.

This does become a waiting game. One is always waiting to go back to Alison Pill and future A-lister Rachel McAdams. Their time seems to be the important part of the movie and contains the big revelation. I don't mind the present day story, but it should be the wrap-around story of the movie. This is based on a play and I don't know anything about that. No matter what, this needs to change.

I found it hard to be sympathetic with the characters in this film, especially the character of Francesca/Marie. They just seemed to missing depth--I could not get into them. One of the reasons for this, I think, is that the pivotal rape scene was not filmed correctly. It appeared hackneyed while at the same time lacking drama. This scene is the basis for the entire film, especially with the flashbacks, and to have it appear lackluster and dull makes the entire film need something more. Moreover, for a dirty poor girl, Alison Pill is presented in the film as too clean and pretty. I could not connect with her in this context. This is not to say that the story isn't good. In fact, Thompson's play is quite engaging and was successful at making me feel for the characters. However, in contrast, the film was quite a disappointment. The film deviates from the original play too much and the meaning behind the story is lost.

This is a film for women. It is a story about the reunion of two once childhood friends who have drifted apart after a terrible incident. Wendy Crewson is wonderful as the friend (Patsy)who didn't leave the small, hometown and became a housewife. Barbara Williams plays the friend (Francesca/Marie) who left and became a world famous opera singer only to return for a benefit concert on behalf of her estranged friend. Neither character was sympathetic and I could not connect with Marie. One of the problems was that the story was told in three different timelines: the present, the past around the time the incident occurred, and the past when the two friends first met. The editing was problematic. As soon as I was getting into the present storyline, the scene would jump into the past. This broke upset the pace and rhythm for me and when they did go to scenes in the past they never stayed long enough to flesh out the story. At least for me. I also found the ending to be anticlimatic and could have ended with the friends reconciling.

Perfect Pie is a cliche-loaded movie about a small-town girl, who made it big, returning home. It's a whole slew of played out ideas that have been done before, and I simply have no patience for any of it. They try to hook you early by suggesting there was some dramatic falling out between these two girls who are reuniting, but they get to a point where I would not believe the animosity they seem to harbor unless it was shown that Rachel McAdams shoved Alison Pill in front of a train. The reveal at the end is uncomfortable, seems improbable, and doesn't really explain the divide we've seen between the two women for the entire film. The movie up until that point felt like it was supposed to be kind of heartwarming and nostalgic, but that 180-degree turn makes it creepy and weird.

It's strange, because I feel like Perfect Pie has an unlikely mix of being both under-written and over-written. The script is lazy and unfocused, so they could have used some tightening up in order to give the entire film a better flow. But at the same time when people are talking the dialogue doesn't feel natural. There's a wordiness to the way they speak that ruins my suspension of disbelief and I can see the script-writer's hand putting words in people's mouths. I'm probably not the target audience for the film, though. This feels more like a Lifetime movie, and would be entertaining for people who enjoy coming-of-age dramas and you-can't-go-home-again tales. Perfect Pie was a bland exercise for me, and one I definitely have no desire to watch again.