THE HIGH COST OF LIVING (Deborah Chow). 92 minutes. March 18 at 6:45pm.
FEMALE EYE FILM FESTIVAL from Wednesday (March 16) to March 20 at Rainbow Cinemas Market Square (80 Front East), unless otherwise specified. See Indie & Rep Film. femaleeyefilmfestival.com. Rating: NN
A Montreal drug peddler (Zach Braff) befriends a pregnant woman (Isabelle Blais) still carrying her dead fetus after a hit and run – without telling her he was the guy driving the car – in this stilted and increasingly scoff-worthy exercise in hand-wringing manipulation from writer/director Deborah Chow.
The movie, which was chosen as one of TIFF Cinematheque’s top 10 Canadian films of 2010, plays like a linear version of a Guillermo Arriaga misery-porn script, with characters making illogical decisions for no other reason than to keep the plot moving in ever-gloomier directions.
Blais and Braff both try to give real performances, but the mechanics of Chow’s script make it an uphill battle.
