An unvarnished look at life in a small town
You may chuckle or gasp at which couple turns out to be the happiest
★★ ★ ★ Starring: Stephen Bogaert, Mikaela Cochrane, Alejandro Rae Directed by: Kyle Thomas Running time: 87 minutes Sometimes a film is notable for the things it doesn’t do.
First-time feature writerdirector Kyle Thomas has made a deliberately small film set in small-town Alberta, and he was clearly aware of the many sinkholes into which it could fall because he avoids all of them deftly. To begin, this is an ensemble drama in which the various characters’ lives intersect and overlap.
But they don’t (ahem) crash into each other violently. Rather they brush, generating some minor friction and perhaps flaking a bit in the process.
It’s almost imperceptible because life is like that.
The episodic structure opens with Kate and Henry (Mikaela Cochrane, Joe Perry), two young people whose carefree love is thrown into turmoil when she discovers she’s pregnant.
The news tumbles out during a camping trip just outside of Drumheller, home of the world’s largest dinosaur and also (as a kind of Creationist me-too) a large statue of Jesus Christ.
Later we are introduced to Shawna and Warren, whose relationship is tested by the fact that he has fathered a child with another woman.
There’s also Gordon and Susan, who have two kids (Kate’s one of them), a taxidermy business and a marriage on the rocks. And there’s Barry and Jill who, since we meet them last, will remain undescribed in this review.
Thomas’ screenplay features numerous themes, not least desire, marriage, children and the recipe for a healthy relationship. You may chuckle or perhaps gasp at which of these couples seems the happiest and why.
But this is hardly an idealized version of small-town life. In the early going, Drumheller seems to offer few recreational activities besides inebriating, screwing and bowling — and most of the characters manage to do them poorly. Warren, who drinks and drives a Zamboni, puts the bad in badlands.
But the film slowly reveals depths to its characters that many longer, bigger features never seem to find time for.
It’s there in the tiny details, like the way someone removes his wedding ring before work, or the hobbies — not shameful but not shared either — that go on behind closed doors.
The actors, taking their cues from the script, underperform their parts perfectly. The Valley Below is a superb first feature and it will be fascinating to see where this new talent turns his lens next.