UNLESS
SPEC D: Alan Gilsenan. Canada/Ireland. 93 min. Sep 11, 6:45 pm Hot Docs Cinema, Sep 12, 11:45 am, Hot Docs Cinema. Rating: NNN
Catherine Keener plays Reta, a successful writer and translator who’s shocked when her college student daughter Nora (Hannah Gross) suddenly shows up panhandling in front of Honest Ed’s, holding a sign that reads “Goodness.”
This adaptation of Carol Shields’s novel focuses almost entirely on Nora’s family’s attempts to convince her to abandon her square metre of pavement. There’s little of Reta’s inner life, understandably given the limitations of the medium, or of the book’s commentary on whether women’s writing is taken seriously. As a result, the ending feels even more like it’s come out the blue than it did in the book.
Keener is great, as usual, convincingly conveying confusion and grief, and visually speaking the film is intense, its handheld cameras relying on close-ups, and Mirvish’s garish emporium is the gift that keeps on giving.
