September 9, 2002

Marion Bridge
Rated NYR

Finally, a Canadian film.  That may sound like an odd distinction, but it is part of the landscape around here.  And while Perspective Canada is a hail and hardy institution, most of the films it offers are painfully lacking.  Not so Wiebke von Carolsfeld’s Marion Bridge, a movie about three sisters, a dying mother and the secrets that have kept them all together and tear them apart.  (That reads like a press note, doesn’t it?  Sorry… late.)

As all Canadian films do (ha ha), Marion Bridge stars Molly Parker.  And while she is terrific, she has first-rate acting partners here with Stacy Smith and especially, the Sarandon-eyed scene stealer, Rebecca Jenkins, whose 15-year-long career has been made up mostly of TV work.

Marion Bridge (sucky name if you don’t know old Canadian hit singles) takes you by surprise by coming right at you, then slowly sneaking around behind you, integrating you into this family.   Some things are obvious… but maybe they aren’t.  Scabs are pulled off, but sometimes heal faster for the pulling.  And just when you relax, some other small pain of what always feels like a real set of lives pulls you into an examination of your own life.  A lovely journey… with three women finding their own way home.