Wilby Wonderful (2004)

A day in the life on Wilby Island, off Nova Scotia, may not sound like a resource for rich storytelling, but in the gifted hands of writer/director Daniel MacIvor and inordinately talented Canadian cast WILBY WONDERFUL penetrates more dark secrets, exposes more astray lives, and addresses more human frailties than almost all of the competition. This is independent film-making at its finest, with all of the emphasis on quality and little concern for the big budget special effects that mire so many films today.On the little island, divided between islanders and mainlanders 'visiting', lives an array of lonely people. We are introduced to a 'cause celebre' that happened on the beach (though the facts are hazy) and investigating the scandal are police officers Buddy French (Paul Gross) and his somewhat loose cannon Stan (portrayed by MacIvor himself). Buddy's wife Carol (Sandra Oh) is a very busy real estate person, assisted by her doofus secretary Deena (Kathryn MacLellan), out to sell a home to the town mayor (Maury Chaykin) and family (Susannah Hoffman and Marcella Grimaux), and while Carol is fretting over details, her meandering husband Buddy is secreting an affair with island returnee wannabe café owner Sandra Anderson (Rebecca Jenkins), whose libidinous past negatively influences her young daughter Emily (Ellen Page) in her new physical tryst with young Taylor (Caleb Langille). And while each of these stories unfolds, the town gossip Irene (Mary Ellen MacLean) keeps her evil eye on the soon-to-be-made apparent scandal that video store owner Dan Jarvis (James Allodi), who spends the entire movie attempting variations on suicide, and town painter Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith Rennie) are to be outed as being gay. It is the strange interplay of each of these lonely, needy characters that brings brilliant focus to the tiny bit of reality that is actually heartfelt.MacIvor and friends pull off this strange little black comedy with ease and aplomb and the film is a charmer in every way - from script to cinematography (Rudolf Blahacek) to musical score (Michael Timmins). This is a splendid little movie that deserves a very wide audience. Grady Harp

Living in a small island where everyone seems to know everyone else, has its own rewards. It takes a certain type of person to enjoy that environment. The people of Wilby, a remote island off the Canadian mainland, are going through a dark period as there are cries how the gays have been gathering at the Watch, a remote area to do evil things, among other things. Some small minded islanders are crying foul, but is it really that bad?We are first introduced to Dan Jarvis, a closeted man, who is trying to kill himself. Whatever he tries to do, backfires on him. The chief of police, Buddy French, has a problem, Sandra Anderson, a girl he liked when he was younger, has come back to the island to settle down. Sandra wants to renew a love affair that has died long time ago. Emily, Sandra's daughter, sneaks to meet her boyfriend, who is making sexual demands of her. Buddy's wife, Carol, an uptight and driven real estate agent, wants to sell Dan's house to Mayor Fisher. Carol finds fault with the signs Duck MacDonald has done to promote a festival.All those trivial everyday life's moments in a small town are perfectly captured in this surprising comedy that has a bittersweet take on the island and the characters that we get to meet. The people in the story seem real. Nothing much happens in this island, yet, a lot of important things change the people we meet in a positive way.Daniel MacIvor has written and directed a delightful film which proves to be a delightful surprise. His screen play shows the easy pace and complicated lives in the small community where nothing seems to happen, yet, a lot goes on under its calm exterior. Mr. MacIvor has gotten a great ensemble performance from all the actors that appear in the film. Haven't we met people like the ones in the movie before?Sandra Oh, a wonderful actress, clearly shows her range the way she plays Carol French, a woman more interested in making a sale than calling an ambulance when she rescues Dan from a sure death. Rebecca Jenkins and Ellen Page, play Sandra and Emily with great ease. Their scenes together are marvelous. James Allodi's Dan is fine; he is never a caricature of a tormented man who can't see clearly. Paul Gross makes a good impression as the police chief. Callum Keith Rennie is excellent as the even tempered Duck."Wilby Wonderful" deserved a much better fate than what it probably received. This is Canadian cinema at its best. Thanks to the talented Daniel MacIvor for sharing with us this intimate portrait of an island and its people.

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.

I saw this movie at the Calgary International Film Festival. Based on the description of the film and a cast with several quality actors to draw (particularly Sandra Oh), I was optimistic. However, seeing the film, I was sorely let down. The characters each were given a problem which was pretty much token, and not really explored in any depth. Character development beyond each issue (one per character, no more, no less) was sorely missing. Frankly, the writing was of high school creative writing quality at best, and the soundtrack was another glaring weak spot. (How long was the song over the opening credits?) (My sincere apologies to the film makers - I don't mean to trash the film but I was severely disappointed).