The Vernon Film Society’s first film of 2013 is bound to be an audience pleaser if previous films by director Michael McGowan (St. Ralph, One Week and Score, a Hockey Musical) are anything to go by.
McGowan’s latest, Still, is based on the true story of 89-year-old New Brunswick farmer Craig Morrison, played by James Cromwell (Babe, Secretariat), who starts to build a new home on his land for his ailing wife, played by French-Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold (Oscar nominee for Anne of a Thousand Days and Canadian Film Award winner for Kamouraska).
In the film, Craig is thwarted by government inspector Rick (Jonathon Potts) who makes it his personal mission to halt construction of the new house.
A skilled carpenter who can be cantankerous and stubborn, Craig manages to keep his traditional farm going because of the support of his wife, Irene, who’s as tough and determined as he is, and he is not going to back down.
On one level a story about the clash between heritage and modernity, Still is also a remarkably incisive and affecting character study.
The taciturn Craig’s labour of love is inspired as much by his profound need to prove that he is still capable of providing for himself and his family and by his sense of his own mortality as it is by his powerful devotion to his wife.
Set against the gorgeous windswept vistas of New Brunswick, the movie is sensitively and astutely directed and features magnificent performances from its perfectly cast leads.
Still has recently been acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films for distribution in the U.S., a real coup for an independent Canadian film.
Still will be shown at the Vernon Towne Cinema on Monday, Jan. 7 at 5:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. All tickets are $7, available at the theatre and the Bean Scene one week prior to the show as well as at the door.
