The Rest of Us

A lovely small movie dealing with big life decisions.

The passing of a cheating, dead beat husband (cleverly absent on screen), leaves a pair of mother daughter teams struggling to cope with the aftermath. Unfortunate circumstances lead to an uncomfortable union of two reluctant female families joined at a virtual hip, sifting through various emotional messes. Thankfully "The Rest of Us" is no schmaltzy feel gooder, preferring to plot a realistic storyline in a most complicated situation.

In a career performance, Heather Graham is great as a well to do author, taking in her suddenly struggling successor, disrupting a seemingly utopian oasis. The awkward tension between former wives is balanced by their uppity pre and full teen daughters, who deal with the tragedy from very different angles, and very different ages.

As the unsympathetic mistress turned second wife, Jodi Balfour tackles a difficult role with a careful balance of devastation, guilt and determination. The seedy details of what went down is sketched over, and rightfully so. This movie is all about the present, and who exactly these people really are. It all rides on character discovery.

Filmed economically in a handful of small, closed locations, focussing solely on the four leads, "The Rest of Us" is a quick eighty minutes of exceptional cinema that offers much to think about. Superb.

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I didn't think I'd enjoy The Rest of Us but I decided to take a chance on it. I love how the film evolved and how in such a short amount of time (90 minutes) the four characters connected. Several times I reflected on how I would handle a situation like this. I'd like to believe I'd handle it with the same grace as Cami but I don't know.

Cami (Heather Graham) and her daughter Aster (Sophie Nélisse) receive news of the death of her ex-husband and Aster's father. The new wife Rachel (Jodi Balfour) with her daughter Talulah get evicted and she reluctantly accepts Cami's offer to stay at her home.

It is a family drama of a different kind. It's a shorter Canadian indie. The story is intriguing with all kinds of cross currents. The overall theme of cheating is fascinating since the Craig is not there. These women have to deal with the aftermath and with each other. The writing could do with more humor and it could add some more drama for the third act. Maybe the daughters run off and the mothers can bond over the search. Nevertheless, this is an interesting little film with some interesting actresses.

It's extremely refreshing to see a movie that doesn't depend on male characters or male actors. It was very real and really gives you a lot to think about as far as how we as women can dramatically impact each other through our choices. We can also choose to have compassion and choose to forgive -even if it's extremely hard.

A man dies, leaving behind his wife, ex-wife, and a daughter from each of them. Circumstances force the two women (Heather Graham and Jodi Balfour) and their daughters together, where they sift through their feelings and try to cope with changes in their life. In the case of what was his current family, they're now homeless, and his older daughter is considering dropping out of college.

There's enough here to spend 80 minutes of your time, but I have to say, I was disappointed in how little the film explored the emotions of these characters. There are a couple of moments that felt raw and real, but in aggregate it felt pretty shallow and sugar-coated. I liked the quiet tone of it and the casting choices, but the character motivations didn't ring true. As for the ending, perhaps if the film had been fleshed out and I had been taken on a darker journey along the way I might have gone for it, but as it was, it just seemed too simple and easy.