Wilby Wonderful

This movie was on a local cable channel, and I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It's called a comedy, but I see it more as a "slice of life" movie. Not really a drama, not really a comedy, but a wonderful movie that really hooked me into the characters. The story was great (and way too many movies have cruddy scripts and story lines). I, too, found that no one character got the main focus of the story and yet I wasn't hoping to find out more from everyone. What I got was just enough. The people were real, smart, and the interactions were very true to life. The only thing I would do is make the movie a bit longer (just because I liked everyone's story so much) If you get a chance to see this movie, see it. It's well worth the time.

This web-of-life drama with a dark comedic edge takes place in a small town on the fictional island of Wilby, somewhere off the coast of Nova Scotia. Here we get to know quite a few people, beginning with Dan Jarvis (James Allodi), a video store owner whose wife has just left him. His exquisite despair, agitation and dead serious suicidal impulses are occasioned not only by this loss but, more fundamentally, by the fact that he is being exposed, against his wishes, as a gay man, not a social status often sought in this tight little conservative village.

Jarvis's forced "outing" is part of a more sweeping attack on regular gatherings of homosexuals and drug users at a waterfront park. Turns out that developers are behind the exposes. They're almost drooling in anticipation of establishing a destination golf club with surrounding upscale houses on the now public park land, once they succeed in convincing the townsfolk that the only sure way to keep unsavory characters from corrupting their young people and way of life is to get rid of that park, i.e., by selling it to them, and for a song at that.

We also meet Buddy French (Paul Gross), a straight arrow local cop, and his tightly wound wife Carol (Sandra Oh), who has gotten herself into a chronic dither chasing brass rings in the world of real estate sales. Then there is Sandy Anderson (Rebecca Jenkins), the faded sex queen and mother of teenage daughter Emily (Ellen Page), whom Sandy worries will follow in her own pathetic footsteps.

Rounding out the group of major players in this drama are Wilby's Mayor, Brent Fisher (Maury Chaykin), whose porcine joviality seems overdone, perhaps to cover less seemly activities, and the pivotal character Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith Rennie), an Everyman clad perpetually in overalls, whose gentle manner and near omnipresence suggest that he's a sort of guardian angel placed among these humans to bail them out of trouble. In smaller roles, there's also Irene (Mary Ellen MacLean), a first rate gossip, and Buddy's police partner, Stan (played by the film's writer-director, Daniel McIvor), whose conduct is sometimes nefarious.

I take the trouble to mention all of these people because the film is really more a series of character sketches than a narrative, and because the acting is, with perhaps one exception, uniformly fine. For some viewers, the exception may be Sandra Oh's over-the-top frenzied behavior during much of the film, though certainly there are ambitious control freaks out there in the real world who carry on like she does. (Incidentally, the beauty of Ms. Oh's face is captured stunningly here by DP Rudolf Blahacek, especially in profile in a scene shot while she is driving.)

Some viewers might also wonder whether James Allodi's compulsive suicidal behavior as the deeply suffering Dan Jarvis is also over the top. He keeps making good faith efforts to end his life that are thwarted, sometimes in ways that make you laugh even when your intentions are otherwise. In this darkly funny depiction, MacIvor seems to have borrowed from the drollery of Bud Cort's habitual suicidal poses in "Harold and Maude."

We viewers can also easily see the pain in Jarvis's face and wonder how so many of the town citizens can fail to notice or respond to him. Fact is that in real life this is common. Often people are either too self absorbed or otherwise preoccupied to see pain in others. Or if they do, they gloss over it because they are too busy or are reluctant to intrude, to mind another person's business.

The film offers a wonderful quote from Mark Twain, delivered by Buddy French to Mayor Fisher: "Golf: A good walk ruined." "Wilby" was produced not by Canada's National Film Board, the source of so many wonderful movies from that country, but jointly by the provincial film boards of Nova Scotia and Ontario. The location for the film is actually not an island at all, but rather the town of Shelburne, pop. 2,000, on the southwest coast of the Nova Scotian mainland.) "Wilby" is unlikely to get wide U. S. distribution, and that is unfortunate, because it's a little gem of a movie. My rating: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 11/28/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

What an enjoyable movie. Saw it at the Stony Brook Film Festival and was disappointed to hear it has gone straight to video. With so much crap out there, there is surely a place for a movie like this. Unfortunately, there are no special effects, or in your face sex and violence. The story makes sense, the loose ends are tied up and the characters are real. In fact, one of the few known faces, to me, was Sandra Oh and she was nearly a distraction, because she is so familiar. Everyone else seemed more real. This movie was made by the same guy who made "Marion Bridge" another Canadian movie set in Cape Breton and starring, if that's the right word, the delightful Molly Parker. Bravo John McIvor and everyone involved in this thoroughly entertaining movie. You'd have been pleased at the ovation at the end of the screening.

Every one strays from the path of being a descent human being. we all have our own way of coping with life. where ever a person can hide, not to take responsibility for their lives. or compensate through being a workaholic, promiscuous, chasing money, or finding a mate to validate ourselves when we feel lonely etc...etc. people can complicate a glass of water. and so are the characters in this story. each one is their own worst enemy (arent we all) in this slice of wilby history. it's decision making time in wilby wonderful. am i going to continue avoiding the accountability of my life or am i going to change?

this film just reminds me of why i love independent, dialogue driven film. the beauty of the town isn't not to be confused with the kind of people that live there. each character was brought out into full dimension. and i was able to feel all their pain. the fact that i hated sandra oh, just means she's a great actress. if i were her husband in this film, things wouldve turned out different. my recognition for outstanding actress in this film goes to ellen page. i recommend this film to any one who is a member of the human race. i also have to thank Film Movement for delivery of this film to my home. we don't get any indies out here. if not for them, i've missed it.

WILBY WONDERFUL is an enjoyable and quirky film--the sort Independent film lovers will love and most others will find not particularly compelling. That's because the traditional style of film making is definitely NOT what you see here and the film is extremely hard to characterize. This doesn't bother me, as I see it as a nice "slice of life" film but some may balk because it really isn't a comedy, romance or drama--though it definitely has elements of all three genres.

Wilby Island is a small resort town near Nova Scotia. The film concerns just a few residents and their struggles. While all these characters are seriously flawed, you tend to like most of them as beneath all their crazy baggage, there are shreds of decency. Some of the struggles involve a work-a-holic woman and her forgotten husband, a gay man struggling with self hatred and a trampy single mother whose daughter is struggling with either continuing or breaking the cycle of early pregnancy and desperation.

I think all these story elements work well due to the gentleness of the film. The stories unfold slowly and with a touch of humor--helping to pull the viewer into a story that isn't filled with great excitement or action. As a result, the acting, writing and direction all are given a chance to stand out and be noticed! The only failing, and this may not bother everyone, is the music. The opening song is catchy but the voice is seriously grating. Also, several times during the film, they have little music video montages. A few films have done this in recent years and I suppose it is "hip" but to me it just looks sloppy and distracting. It really disrupted the flow and seemed like filler. Still, this isn't a big problem and the film's many positives greatly outweigh this--making this a film worth seeing if you are looking for some sort of alternative entertainment and not the typical Hollywood fare.