Hidden depths
This is one where you don’t want to watch the trailer. It’ll set you up for a quirky little rom- com, and you’re bound to walk away disappointed.
If, on the other hand, you prime yourself for an intelligent family drama – well, you might be let down there too. The latest from writer/ director Joan Carr-Wiggin is a little from column A, a little from column B. But unlike her previous work, 2012’s If I Were You, it all holds together and even gets stronger in the second half. She’s clearly using better glue on this one.
Janet Montgomery – a Brit who can pull off a Canadian accent and even pronounce Toronto properly (“Tronna”) — stars as Heather, an aspiring documentarian who got out of her small hometown after high school and never looked back. Until now, that is; her acerbic father ( Peter Firth) is ailing, and so she comes home to see him.
In the hospital she runs into Sarah Ann ( Sara Paxton), her high school BFF. Actually, strike that last F. Sarah Ann is about to get married to a dopey cop (Alex McCooeye) and ropes Heather into attending the wedding and acting as videographer.
This assignment throws Heather right back i nto small- town life; Sault Ste. Marie ably doubles as Anywhere, northern Ontario. But things are more compli- cated than she remembers from high school, when all she had to worry about was accidentally living out the lyrics to that Police song with her favourite teacher. For one thing, an extraordinary number of people are having extramarital affairs.
But before the whole thing devolves into a semi- detached four- bedroom farce, Happily Ever After throws more curves into the mix than the Blue Jays’ bullpen. Key is the fact that Sarah Ann reveals hidden reserves of intelligence and humour, all without breaking character.
Heather’s grumpy dad, Sarah Ann’s hysteric mom, the clueless town doctor — all start off as caricatures, only to reveal unexpected depths. Even a minor character, seemingly introduced to act as a shrewish wife and make someone else more likable, turns out to have a sympathetic side. “I bet you didn’t think that I’d turn out to be the complicated one,” someone says; I won’t reveal who, but it could be almost anyone in this enjoyable, deceptively simple story. ΩΩΩ