Wilby Wonderful

Starring:Wilby Wonderful
Studio: Film Movement
Product Type: DVD

Product Description

Wilby Wonderful is the February selection in the Film Movement Series. A bittersweet comedy about the difference a day makes. Over the course of twenty-four hours, the residents of the tiny island town of Wilby try to maintain business as usual in the face of very unusual business.

Customer Reviews:

A superb, highly intelligent film.......2007-06-26

This is a marvelous "small" film. I don't mean "small" to denote anything perjorative. It is merely that the film tells a small story very close up and personal with a fairly small ensemble cast. I didn't check the closing credits but there may not have been a special effects coordinator. The film tells in subtle fashion the story of the lives of several residents of the Canadian island Wilby. The town looks peaceful enough, but it opening shots reveal a simmering scandal. The names of individuals who meet at a secluded and undeveloped area of the island -- presumably for homosexual encounters and drug use -- are about to be revealed. Not coincidentally we see a man climbing onto the rail of a bridge, presumably to jump into the river below. We later learn that he and another resident of the island were likely to be among the names released.

Very little beyond this happens in the film. We meet people and witness the small but familiar stresses in their lives. A police officer (played by the wonderful Paul Gross) who is tempted to have an affair with a woman he went to high school with who has returned to the island to run a diner. His marriage with a high strung, highly driven realtor (Sandra Oh) is not going well and his wife forces herself to be oblivious to problems they have. The woman who runs the diner desperately wants to be loved and is concerned her young daughter (played by up and comer Ellen Page, who I loved as Kitty Pryde -- my favorite X-Person -- in THE X-MEN 3) will repeat her mistakes. The daughter, on the other hand, thinks she has found love with a young boy and is contemplating losing her virginity to him. The town handyman (played by Callum Keith Rennie, Gross's former costar in DUE SOUTH and one of those delightful, fun loving Cylons on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) is more or less resigned to his forced outing and is more concerned with reaching out to Dan, his co-conspirator. Dan, on the other hand, seems more determined to end his life.

Thoreau wrote that the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation and that certainly applies to the residents of Wilby. These are not happy people and are generally not admirable people, except perhaps for Duck (Rennie's character) who is not only an apparently kind person but also steps in as a hero in saving the young girl from a sexual assault. But despite all the problems of these decidedly limited souls, the movie ends quite, well, wonderfully.

I liked this movie a great deal. I'll be honest: I think the plethora of 5-star ratings is not quite deserved. To me 5-star ratings should be reserved for unquestionably great films. This is a very, very nice, good, pleasant, unambitious, small film. And there is nothing wrong with that. If you like thoughtful, intelligent films you should definitely see it. If you have attention deficit disorder you should seek out something else entirely.

serendipity.......2007-01-10

I bought this DVD based on multiple recommendations I've seen on the web and from friends with shared interests. Initially, I mostly went for the Callum Keith Rennie factor, and he was terrific in this movie, no questions about it. For CKR fans, this is one of the most enjoyable roles he's played where his talents are not abused by scripts looking for a brilliant and intense villain.

On top of that, I was most pleasantly surprised by how well the ensemble of great actors came together -- everyone else on the film carried their own weight and made the gestalt so much more than I ever could've expected. This is a refreshing treat for those tired of the graphic violence, gloom, or cheesy inanity plaguing the postmodern cinema.

...and it is WONDERFUL.......2006-12-21

"WILBY WONDERFUL"

...and it is wonderful

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

If you need a boost or just want to feel good, get a copy of "Wilby Wonderful" (Film Movement) and your spirits will rise from the monument the opening credits roll especially when you see that Sandra Oh of "Gray's Anatomy" is in the film. Wilby is a small town a short ferry ride from mainland Canada but the people who live there rarely go anywhere because they love their town so much. On the outside peace and tranquility are the norm but Wilby has a collection of eccentric characters and lots of drama. The movie looks at what happens to several people who live in Wilby when secrets (that are not so innocent) threaten to reveal themselves and make a mess of a well-knit community.
This is a multi=plot comedy-drama with an excellent ensemble cast and a wonderful low-key approach with quirky touches and warm emotions and it pulls you in. We first meet Carol (Oh) who is a control freak trying t promote Wilby Island where no one can seem to do anything right. The townspeople cannot even hang the town banner correctly. She has no idea that her husband (the town cop) is lusting after a single mother in the town whose teenage daughter is being pressured by her football player boyfriend to have sex. Then there is a character named Dan who sashays around town deep in thought about suicide and distracted from actually going through with taking his life by a friendly builder. There is so much happening that no one seems to be bothered by a local scandal and there are more characters who are involved in other strange activities.
On Wilby Island, everyone seems to get along but they are all afraid to be themselves and have nothing to fear from each other. Some of the residents are highly judgmental while others could not care less of what is happening around them. Almost everyone has some obsession with sex--either they want it or they are afraid of it, or they are jealous of those that are having it and this is all very obvious. Below the surface of this sweet little community everyone is disgruntled and frustrated that they are not where they want to be in life.
So welcome to Wilby where all hell is about to break loose. This is a short story on the silver screen which covers one single day in the eccentrics of Wilby. As desperate as the characters are, they are all connected and much can change in one day especially in a small town where everyone knows everyone else.
The scandal that is about to break in the town has something to do with the gay men having sex in public places but there is so much else going on that no one really has time to notice. When the scandal does break there is an interesting reaction. Some do not care, some are frightened, some are shocked and some just could not care less.
This is wonderful storytelling with several scenes that are truly brilliant. Writer/director Daniel MacIvor has captured something unique in this film. By the time the movie is over, you feel like you actually live in Wilby and know everyone in town and that shows the power of this amazing little film.

Top Drawer.......2006-06-03

"Wilby Wonderful" is a delightful gem I encountered through the Magnolia Arts Center. This Canadian film was directed by Daniel MacIvor who plays the little role of Stan, a cop that keeps trying to plant drug paraphernalia on a pristine beach to further a plot hatched by the mayor to turn it into a golf course. Unfortunately, Stan doesn't know the difference between an unused insulin needle and a heroin addict's discard. James Allodi who starred this year with Carrie-Anne Moss & Signorey Weaver in "Snow Cake" does a great job as the hapless divorcee Dan trying to kill himself rather than come to terms with his attraction to other men. Callum Keith Rennie plays Duck MacDonald, the town workman, who has an attraction to Dan, if he could ever catch him between suicide attempts. MacIvor generates comedy such as in the scene where Sandra Oh happens upon the hanging Dan and we hear the body clunk to the floor as she cuts him down off-camera. We know what's happening and hear it, and laugh harder because we don't see it. Rennie won the Canadian Oscar, the Genie, as best supporting actor for "Last Night" and also appeared in "The Butterfly Effect." Sandra Oh who has become prominent via the hit TV series "Grey's Anatomy" and films like "Under the Tuscan Sun" & "Sideways" turns in a stellar performance as the real estate woman Carol French who'd rather hide a body in an empty house rather than blow a sale. Her husband is Buddy who is the town cop played by Paul Gross who we saw as the Canadian mountie in the "Due South" TV series. Buddy is tempted toward an affair by local restaurant owner Sandra Anderson played by Rebecca Jenkins who was in the "10.5" disaster TV movie. She also received a Genie nomination for Best Original Song for "Wilby Wonderful." Her daughter Emily has to sort out her relationship with a boy. Emily is played by Ellen Page who currently appears in "X-Men 3" and garnered a Best Supporting Actress Genie nomination for "Wilby Wonderful." The little cafe patron who hates gays named Irene played by Mary Ellen MacLean also gives a delightful cameo performance. "Wilby Wonderful" is a film that speaks about tolerance and people's need to be loved and find love. The characterizations are top drawer in this delightful little gem. BRAVO!

Can anyone give me a roadmap to this town????.......2006-03-16

What a little life-affirming gem this is; if it does nothing else, it leaves you with hope. Performances are everything in a film of this nature........and, here, not one of them lets you down. These guys and gals 'put out' what the multi-millionaire, cookie-cutter stars of Hollywood quite often do not. So, just a comment or two concerning them and/or their characterizations:

==Sandra Oh---Gee whiz, where has she dropped out of? If you're a fan of hers from TV's "Grey's Anatomy" and think she's the greatest, you ain't seen nothing yet (til you see her here........can there be any wonder why she won a 2006 Golden Globe award?).

==Paul Gross---Playing the 'almost' disillusioned husband and the oh-so-wise town policeman, he sneaks in under our radar and becomes 1 of the main axles of the town of Wilby. He's one of those types we all know who "keeps things running," someone with a mission to do the right thing.

==Rebecca Jenkins & Ellen Page---Being mother and daughter, they bring us into their skins (what tremendous performances).

==James Allodi---As 'one of life's saddest,' he gives us two instants on film when, in the lifeless eyes of a benumbed man undergoing both marriage breakup and devastating lifestyle change, we see appear a "spark" (the first a scarily breathtaking moment for us; the second a joyous one---you'll easily recognize them both).

==Callum Keith Rennie---If Allodi's Dan is the one begging redemption in this movie (its "life-loss" so to speak), then Rennie is its "life spark." Aside from the town policeman, no other is as sensitive to everyone else and their needs as is Duck MacDonald (to be stable, a vehicle needs at least 2 axles; Duck is this town's other). He is amazing in his perceptiveness, his caring, his persistence in landing who he knows to be the "love of his life." Showing my partiality (and preferences, I guess) I must say I only wish that every film of a lighter, romantic nature (containing gay aspects, or not), had a Callum Keith Rennie.

Lastly, what great and uplifting closing moments we've been given: the depth of feeling and the emotional intensity reached in the final scene's pairing is palpable, almost overwhelming........perfectly capping a little---but monumental---film belonging in every movie lover's collection.

PS: In its release year, if any film would have been worthy of consideration for one of the several "Best Ensemble Acting" awards, this film certainly should have been foremost (I can't believe the multi-cast acting in the recently awarded "Crash" could be of any higher caliber).

Average customer rating:

A superb, highly intelligent film
Wilby Mediocre
Simply Wonderful
'Wilby' Wonderful? Oh, it is.

Wilby Wonderful

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( W ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000787Z0S

Customer Reviews:

A superb, highly intelligent film.......2007-06-26

This is a marvelous "small" film. I don't mean "small" to denote anything perjorative. It is merely that the film tells a small story very close up and personal with a fairly small ensemble cast. I didn't check the closing credits but there may not have been a special effects coordinator. The film tells in subtle fashion the story of the lives of several residents of the Canadian island Wilby. The town looks peaceful enough, but it opening shots reveal a simmering scandal. The names of individuals who meet at a secluded and undeveloped area of the island -- presumably for homosexual encounters and drug use -- are about to be revealed. Not coincidentally we see a man climbing onto the rail of a bridge, presumably to jump into the river below. We later learn that he and another resident of the island were likely to be among the names released.

Very little beyond this happens in the film. We meet people and witness the small but familiar stresses in their lives. A police officer (played by the wonderful Paul Gross) who is tempted to have an affair with a woman he went to high school with who has returned to the island to run a diner. His marriage with a high strung, highly driven realtor (Sandra Oh) is not going well and his wife forces herself to be oblivious to problems they have. The woman who runs the diner desperately wants to be loved and is concerned her young daughter (played by up and comer Ellen Page, who I loved as Kitty Pryde -- my favorite X-Person -- in THE X-MEN 3) will repeat her mistakes. The daughter, on the other hand, thinks she has found love with a young boy and is contemplating losing her virginity to him. The town handyman (played by Callum Keith Rennie, Gross's former costar in DUE SOUTH and one of those delightful, fun loving Cylons on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) is more or less resigned to his forced outing and is more concerned with reaching out to Dan, his co-conspirator. Dan, on the other hand, seems more determined to end his life.

Thoreau wrote that the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation and that certainly applies to the residents of Wilby. These are not happy people and are generally not admirable people, except perhaps for Duck (Rennie's character) who is not only an apparently kind person but also steps in as a hero in saving the young girl from a sexual assault. But despite all the problems of these decidedly limited souls, the movie ends quite, well, wonderfully.

I liked this movie a great deal. If you like thoughtful, intelligent films you should definitely see it. If you have attention deficit disorder you should seek out something else entirely.

Wilby Mediocre.......2005-04-15

If this movie was written by a teenager dealing with angst it would be brilliant. But unfortunately it is a very modest effort on the part of Daniel MacIvor, a grown man.

The charcters deal with pointless issues as though they were life-shattering decisions and all of them are shallow to the point of being totally unbeleivable.

The town of Wilby seems only to be occupied only with the characters with dialogue - all of who are cliches and this gives the film a stage-play feel to it. This is odd because plot and character devices from both "American Beauty" and even "Jaws" are easy to spot. The main stars, Paul Gross and Rebecca Jenkins generate a kind of anti-chemistry with every other character in the film, especially Ellen Page whose performance as the smart-but-misunderstood-diamond-in-the rough is laughably bad.

Callum Keith Rennie is the only stand-out in a movie that is otherwise amateurish in many ways. The only thing it gets full marks for is being recognizably Canadian by way of low technical quality and numerous plot holes, instances of poor acting, poor casting and childish outlooks.

It is important to support Canadian film, but not by abandoning critical judgement. This is not a good movie.

Simply Wonderful.......2005-03-31

A truly enjoyable film that is uniquely Canadian, it contains something which makes itself a diamond in the rough among modern day films - heart. Exploring the intracacies of numerous topics from a failing marriage to the complexities of untold love. This in depth exploration, in conjunction with excellent acting from the all-Canadian cast, makes this film truly wonderful.

'Wilby' Wonderful? Oh, it is........2005-03-22

A beautiful, simple, and gently humourous look at the shenanigans and goings-on of a small town in one day, "Wilby Wonderful" is simply that - wonderful. It's a perfect little gem of a film that not only has an all-star Canadian cast, but boasts witty and thoughtful writing, and emotive direction.

Covering such topics as the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter, a marriage on the brink of complete dissolution, and a love that dare not speak its name, "Wilby Wonderful" allows 'normal' people to shine in this curiously poignant and oftentimes hilarious movie - some memorable characters include the typically small-town, brashly outspoken mayor, a sign painter who's dyslexic, and a depressed man whose suicide attempts all seem to be thwarted at the worst times.

Most importantly, this film has something which so many movies lack - heart. The townsfolk of Wilby are easily recognizable, and in a way that seems uniquely Canadian, each person in Wilby seems to have about them a sense of unerring hope, a sort of quiet optimism that keeps them going.

Utterly and completely engrossing and spellbinding from beginning to end, "Wilby Wonderful" is quirky, entertaining, and heartbreakingly beautiful. Don't pass this one up.

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