It's a modern drama based in East Village and Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Toronto, Ontario, about two sisters, one of whom is suicidal. It's an adaptation of Miriam Toews' 2014 novel of the same title.
In the movie's opening, we see the suicide of the two sisters' father, Jake Von Riesen (Donal Logue). We are introduced to Elf (Gabrielle Jennings/Sarah Gadon), an accomplished concert pianist who suffers from deep depression. She is married to Nic (Aly Mawji), a loving and devoted husband. Her sister, Yoli (Marin Almasi/Alison Pill), was a wild child who left a marriage after 16 years. She's in a loveless relationship with an uptight lawyer, Alex Finbar (Michael Musi), and has a bright but mouthy teenage daughter, Nora (Amybeth McNulty). Yoli is a novelist that has experienced limited success and won't tell anyone about her latest manuscript. And then there is Lottie, Elf's and Yoli's mother (Mare Winningham), who is a plain-spoken realist still rooted in her conservative Mennonite community.
The film primarily follows the relationship of the two sisters within the larger family structure, with flashbacks to earlier times that include their father. Throughout the film, Yoli struggles to extract hope from her sister, but Elf has too often seen hope in the morning transition to despair in the afternoon. Finally, the resolution has truth and reality etched within it.
This is a brilliantly sad movie. The humor that helps Yoli (and Miriam Toews) survive all that life throws at her is well embodied in the film. Lottie survives with less humor but a more profound sense of a reality that can leave the pain behind. Lottie's character seems unrealistic, but all I've heard about the "real" Lottie suggests the portrayal was accurate.
I really liked the novel when I read it; my only question about the film is whether viewers unfamiliar with the book might find the storyline somewhat confusing.
In the movie's opening, we see the suicide of the two sisters' father, Jake Von Riesen (Donal Logue). We are introduced to Elf (Gabrielle Jennings/Sarah Gadon), an accomplished concert pianist who suffers from deep depression. She is married to Nic (Aly Mawji), a loving and devoted husband. Her sister, Yoli (Marin Almasi/Alison Pill), was a wild child who left a marriage after 16 years. She's in a loveless relationship with an uptight lawyer, Alex Finbar (Michael Musi), and has a bright but mouthy teenage daughter, Nora (Amybeth McNulty). Yoli is a novelist that has experienced limited success and won't tell anyone about her latest manuscript. And then there is Lottie, Elf's and Yoli's mother (Mare Winningham), who is a plain-spoken realist still rooted in her conservative Mennonite community.
The film primarily follows the relationship of the two sisters within the larger family structure, with flashbacks to earlier times that include their father. Throughout the film, Yoli struggles to extract hope from her sister, but Elf has too often seen hope in the morning transition to despair in the afternoon. Finally, the resolution has truth and reality etched within it.
This is a brilliantly sad movie. The humor that helps Yoli (and Miriam Toews) survive all that life throws at her is well embodied in the film. Lottie survives with less humor but a more profound sense of a reality that can leave the pain behind. Lottie's character seems unrealistic, but all I've heard about the "real" Lottie suggests the portrayal was accurate.
I really liked the novel when I read it; my only question about the film is whether viewers unfamiliar with the book might find the storyline somewhat confusing.