ONLY (Ingrid Veninger, Simon Reynolds). 73 minutes. Opens Friday (April 24) at the Royal. See Indie & Rep Film listings. Rating: NNNN
Sometimes it’s a disservice to call a movie “small.” Not always. Ingrid Veninger and Simon Reynolds’s Only is as small as they come. Other words that apply just as well are “intimate,” “modest” and “delicate.” Also “lovely.”
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Built along similar lines as Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Only follows two characters wandering around and getting to know one another. In this case, the characters are isolated kids who meet by chance at a motel in snowy Parry Sound. It’s not exactly Vienna by moonlight – it’s pretty much the opposite, actually.
Twelve-year-old Daniel (Jacob Switzer) helps out at the motel run by his parents. Thirteen-year-old Vera (Elena Hudgins Lyle) is just there for the day, looking for something to do while her folks argue. They start talking and then go for a walk, and the camera just sort of follows along, capturing a series of sweet, awkward moments between the two bruised protagonists.
Reynolds and Veninger have spent years working as actors on other people’s sets, and demonstrate a great sense of place and mood, building a whole universe in the crisp air that hangs between their two young leads. You can’t help but want everything to work out.
