Wilby Wonderful, written and directed by Daniel MacIvor
This film has been referred to as a “dark” comedy, but a better word would be “poignant.” Wilby Wonderful centers on a group of characters in the small Canadian island community of Wilby. Two things are about to happen: the Wilby Days Festival and an ominous disclosure of those who had been involved in “the Watch scandal.” The situations and relationships of the story’s characters become gradually clear.
It begins curiously with a long-faced man on a bridge (James Allodi) who is obviously planning to kill himself by jumping off it. His jump is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a handyman in his truck. Hastily the man climbs back down, but his foot gets stuck between the bridge’s bars as the driver approaches. The two men apparently know each other; the embarrassment of the one is awkwardly heightened by the silent but understanding concern of the other (Callum Keith Rennie). Our jumper realizes the other guy isn’t going to go away, so he morosely lopes off to his own car and drives off. After watching him disappear, the man with the truck sets about the job that brought him to the bridge in the first place: he pulls out and unrolls a large banner that cheerily declares “Wilby Wonderful.” It turns out to be a misprint—the banners are supposed to say “Wonderful Wilby.” The misprint becomes a gentle pun—things might be misaligned now, but they “will be” wonderful if given the chance.
We find out that the would-be jumper is Dan Jarvis, the video store owner whose wife has just left him after he was discovered in an affair with a man—Walter “Duck” McDonald, the handyman with the truck. Poor Dan’s suicide attempt becomes a running joke throughout the film, as each of his subsequent (and inept) attempts are thwarted. Something in this suggests he doesn’t seriously want to die, he just doesn’t know how to face the humiliation of having been found out.
From there throughout the day we encounter and gradually learn about Emily Anderson (Ellen Page), teenage daughter of single mom Sandy (Rebecca Jenkins). Emily is trying to decide what to do with her hair, then races off to a petting session with her new boyfriend Taylor (Caleb Langille). Emily’s mom runs one of the town’s diners and is still the man-hungry floozy that she was in high school. Emily’s dash across town causes Carol French (Sandra Oh) to slam on the brakes of her bulky SUV while she’s rattling off directives on her cell phone. Carol is a real estate agent who is organizing the festival and trying to sell her mother-in-law’s house to the mayor, Brent Fisher (Maury Chaykin). Carol’s husband Buddy (Paul Gross) is one of the town’s policemen who is investigating the Watch scandal. The mayor’s brother-in-law Stan Lastman (Daniel MacIvor) is Buddy’s partner. Sandy Anderson and Buddy are attempting to have an affair, but so far haven’t gotten beyond surreptitious groping and kissing as brief opportunities present themselves.
Everything comes to a head in the evening. Dan finally manages to hang (but not kill) himself from an exposed beam in the house Carol is trying to sell to the mayor. Flapping papers and muttering to herself about everything that has gone wrong during the day, she doesn’t at first see him. The film takes on a touch of farce as she flies around hysterically trying to figure out what to do. Just as she’s gotten him cut down, the mayor and his family arrive to look at the house. She stuffs the unconscious Dan into the cupboard under the stairs, but the rope he used is still hanging from the beam, and a corner of his jacket is caught in the cupboard door. The mayor’s obnoxious daughter Mackenzie (Marcella Grimaux) won’t leave it alone, opens the cupboard door while the grownups are in another part of the house…Meanwhile, Buddy discovers that Stan has been planting syringes on the parcel of land known as the Watch in order to prove that the Watch is a hangout for drug users, which in turn furthers the mayor’s plan to turn the Watch into a golf course. In the motel room Taylor has taken for them, Emily’s realized she doesn’t want to have sex after all and comes to understand that her mother isn’t a bad person. As Duck tells her, Sandy only wants to love and be loved, just like everyone else.
The comedy is chuckle-inducing, often subtle rather than knee-slapping, and the characters are recognizable without being stereotypes. Everyone comes to a new understanding of themselves or their situations and gets to start afresh. Unlike slick Hollywood endings that imply Perfectly Happy Ever After, Wilby Wonderful ends in low-key believability. Good performances by a familiar range of character actors, especially James Allodi, Maury Chaykin and Sandra Oh. I would just add that Marcella Grimaux (playing the mayor's daughter) is the perfect unpleasant, self-centered teenager, and director Daniel MacIvor’s Stan is a scene stealer. I want to see MacIvor’s other films now.