Montreal plays itself in indie movie
Filmmakers Pat Kiely and Rob Vroom return home from Hollywood
The downtown Windsor Ballroom has hosted some of the city’s toniest wedding bashes. This isn’t one of them.
Family dysfunction rules at these nuptials. There will be over-served guests. There will be nasty barbs hurled. There will be brawls.
Fortunately, it’s mostly the stuff of fiction, or so states director/ writer/producer Pat Kiely, who has tended to have his art imitate the lives of his friends and family in the past.
The Windsor Ballroom has temporarily morphed into the set of Kiely’s latest film, the romantic dramedy Someone Else’s Wedding. A fractured family tries to come together for the wedding of its oldest son, but that looms unlikely.
For starters, the parental unit, Barb and Tammy (played, respectively, by Kathleen Turner and Frances Fisher), have split up. Their elder son Matthew (Jacob Tierney) is set to marry Louisa (Jessica Parker Kennedy), who used to be in love with (and may still be hankering for) Matthew’s younger brother Kurt (Kevin Zegers). Their sister Carrie (Jessica Paré) is in a state and has her own issues regarding the stability of her bond with cannabis-oil manufacturer Misha (Luke Kirby).
There is beauty, though, in this flick. That’s because, yes, Montreal plays Montreal, not Moscow or the moon. And the creative team, Kiely and producer/director of photography Rob Vroom hail from Montreal as do Tierney and Paré and many of other thesps. And the export talent, Fisher, Turner and Wallace Shawn (playing the latter’s buddy and fellow teacher), feel most at home in these parts, too.
Kiely and Vroom are in a buoyant state, despite the fact they will only have 17 days to shoot this film — which wraps Dec 19. Somehow they’ve managed to conscript talent, crews and sets on a fairly paltry $2.3 million budget. But the good news is the provincial film-funding agency SODEC has kicked in $500,000 and its federal counterpart, Telefilm Canada, has anted up $400,000. This bodes well for the local indie anglo film scene.
“Kathleen (Turner) and Jessica (Paré) were the first ones to take a chance and sign on to the project,” Kiely says. “And once people heard they were in, it was like a domino effect and the others all came on board.”
“The bottom line is that a great script can attract great talent, both local and from beyond, and it’s not always about a paycheque,” says Vroom, after conferring with Kiely on the blocking of a wedding-party shot. “And since Pat (Kiely) is a writing machine, there’s much more to come from us.”
Both Kiely, 37, and Vroom, 37, who had hightailed to Hollywood for a spell, are delighted to be back home and to undertake the sort of projects that were once unthinkable for them here. The two had partnered on the twisted rom-com Three Night Stand, shot in and around Montreal three years ago. But the two go farther back, to those gonzo Kidnapper film and sketch-comedy crew days. Kiely was co-director/ co-star of the 2008 local hipster delight Who Is KK Downey?, while Vroom came in after the film was released, producing a series of Kidnapper film shorts.
But whereas chaos featured prominently — and rather effectively at that — in the making of Who Is KK Downey?, everything appears under control on this set. And this is but one of 20 locations for the film. The Kidnapper kids have grown up.
“I guess we’ve matured,” says the winking Kiely. “We’re getting into some real life now. I also guess I’m attracted to dysfunction, even though I’m honestly not like any of these characters. It’s based more on the people in my life.”
“We’ve become good at bearing the stress,” Vroom says.
“It’s also so settling working with such a legendary group of actors who are bringing this project alive,” says Kiely, who wrote the first draft to Someone Else’s Wedding five years ago. “It’s really a boost that SODEC and Telefim took a chance on this. I also feel really lucky to have Rob. He’s such a calming influence on such a crazy 17-day shoot.”
Kiely and Vroom are hopeful their film could lead to a renaissance of sorts on the indie scene here.
“The world of indie film is in such a weird state everywhere these days,” Kiely notes. “It seems that in the States all the interesting stuff is being done on TV or (the streaming services). At least in Canada, there is still this foundation of funding with SODEC and Telefilm. So there is still this passion here about making cool, auteur films.”
“It takes spending time in L.A. to make you realize that there is nothing like home,” Vroom adds.
And even better news, the boys, as well as their Kidnapper cronies, are at work on a sequel to Who Is KK Downey? Kiely has just completed a second draft of the script.
“KK will still be a Mile End hipster, but with a new set of problems,” Kiely says. “He will just be a little more wise and mature.”
Just like his creators.
Kathleen (Turner) and Jessica (Paré) were the first ones to take a chance and sign on to the project. And once people heard they were in, it was like a domino effect.