Unfinished Business

When your mother looks like one of the Nolan sisters, and your dad's a complete wet-wipe, you know you've got problems. And when 17-year old Isabelle (same name as the actress who plays her, natch) finds out her new activist friends are about to blow up a nuclear power plant, her life is about to get a whole lot more complicated. Who said teenage years were easy?

Unfinished Business is a pretty obscure find I watched on YouTube, featuring the Cold War paranoia that stretched as far as Canada back in the Reagan-era days of 1984. None (as far as I'm aware) of the Canuck cast went onto achieve great things in international cinema, and the whole predictable plot has a distinct whiff of 'Back To School Special' about it (Don't run away from home on a whim, Always listen to your parents, Don't do drugs, Eat your greens etc.).

Still, it has mostly good performances, and an amiable 80's charm that perseveres throughout. Even if it's over-earnestness can be grating sometimes, you can always play 'check out that bad hairdo or fashion choice'. Or just kick back and listen to that rocking soundtrack... in fact, that might be asking too much. *Puts earplugs in lugholes*. 5/10.

Writer/director Don Owen's 1984 film drama is a follow up to his 'Nobody Waved Good-bye', one of the key films of the emerging Canadian cinema of the 1960s. Here the focus is on the now 17 year old daughter Isabelle (Isabelle Mejias) of the two main characters in the previous film - Peter Marks (Peter Kastner) and Julie (Julie Biggs) - who are now divorced. Isabelle becomes involved - through her new boyfriend (Peter Spence) - in the 'No Nukes' movement in Toronto. And of course Izzy's parents don't entirely approve of all this. Very different from (and not as good as) the first film, in some respects it has a typical 1980s vibe (ad style imagery, bouncy upbeat tone, and catchy theme tune 'Rise Up' performed by 'The Parachute Club'), but is still a social drama dealing with social issues like the generation gap, homelessness (Izzy has to stay in a night shelter at one point), and drugs. It's main issue however are elements of what we might describe as the 'nuclear nightmare' early 1980s (I remember it well) and it's resultant activism (Izzy's new boyfriend wears a shirt with 'Refuse the Cruise' on it). At one point Izzy says to her father "How come my generation's left with all your dirty laundry?"

On paper, doing a sequel to the classic Canadian film NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE seemed like a good idea. 20 years on, it would be intriguing to revisit the tragic characters of the 1964 movie, to see how they could have gotten on. We see that Julie and Peter got married, had a daughter and then became another divorce statistic.

The sequel nonetheless focuses on their rebellious daughter Isabelle who, like her screwed-up father in his day, is trying to make an identity for herself in this big bad world. All right, but this sincerity is made somewhat contrived as the daughter begins a "save the earth" crusade. These segments seem somewhat forced. In fact the entire film reeks of good intentions but rewards instead with sophomoric results. UNFINISHED BUSINESS, indeed.

In fact, Isabelle's scene with Peter later in the film is one of the few poignant moments. Since Peter and Julie were such fascinating people, it is a shame that they didn't appear here more often. That is the drama- instead the main thread of Isabelle, her environmental crusade, and her relationship with her boyfriend comes off as second-rate.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS is once again a depressing example of one of our country's most famous filmmakers having to churn out such poor material for a living.