VIFF 2018: Splinters
Canada
Coming out with same-sex attraction can be hard enough. But how do you handle coming out with different-sex attraction after that?
That’s the predicament that Belle (Sofia Banzhaf), known to her family as a lesbian, faces when she returns to her family’s apple farm in Nova Scotia. She has a secret, and his name is Rob (Callum Dunphy). She struggles to keep her relationship with her boyfriend hidden from her controlling, change-resistant mother (Shelley Thompson), who is grieving her husband’s death. Thom Fitzgerald’s gentle adaptation of Lee-Anne Poole’s stage play convincingly articulates smalltown dynamics as tensions mount during preparations for the funeral of Belle’s father. Yet, even when the characters are being inappropriate (frequently hilariously so), a pervasive tameness, coupled with an overextended musical-performance scene, unfortunately dulls the potentially sharp edges of the proceedings.
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