wallflowers

amélie

The director of Delicatessen brings us this delightful fairytale story of Amélie, a shy waitress who plots random acts of kindness. Amélie decides on her mission after witnessing the joy she brings to an older man by anonymously returning a box of his childhood treasures. Other acts include sending a garden gnome on a world tour, matchmaking, videomaking, and bestowing justice on behalf of a slow-moving grocer's assistant. Finally, karma catches up with her, and Amélie must decide whether she's brave enough to realize joy in her own life, not just through creating joy for others. Magic realism and the engaging pixie-like quality of lead actor Audrey Tatou make this perfect holiday fare. [france, 2001]

amy

In this powerful yet quirky celebration of mother/child love, a single mother and her mute, grief-stricken mute daughter, Amy, hide out from child welfare. When eight-year-old Amy starts to hear music and responds by singing, it's the stuff movie magic is made of. [australia]

muriel's wedding

As the Abba-obsessed Muriel, Toni Collette shifts from insecure geek to dancing queen with patented Aussie comic flair. Her quest for a white wedding as an escape from her pitiful small-town existence takes a bizarre turn when she hooks up with a free-spirited gal who knows there's more to life than a walk down the aisle. [australia]

muriel review #2

A family dominated by a blaringly ugly politician wannabe narcissist who has mantraized life for his children, "You're lazy, stupid, USELESS," introduces us to Muriel Heslop. Plain, plump and cowed to near nothingness, Muriel lives in a safe world of fantasy and ABBA music, believing that marriage alone will restore her lost dignity. We follow Muriel as she pursues the magical event, a fascinating adventure of living on fabrications and wedding gown shopping. Despair and hilarity are woven masterfully together for all of this movie's compelling characters, and the truth wins out for most. We all part sadder but wiser. [australia] ~ reviewed by nancy brown

welcome to the dollhouse

Director Todd Solondz sure understands what it's like to be an awkward, annoying, and oblivious 11-year old girl. This film is so real it's painful. As Dawn "Weiner-Dog" Weiner, Heather Matarazzo grumpily stumbles around puberty, while her tutu-wearing younger sister charms everyone. Guaranteed to bring back all scenes of humiliation from your childhood. [us]

clockwatchers

Amid greenish-hued cubicles and syncopated musak four office temps try to break out of the office-caste system and become "full-time." However, in this acme-inspired company being a temp means you're unreliable, untrustworthy, and mostly dispensable. Indie queen Parker Posey teeters on the edge of insanity as the "veteran temp." If you're working at a McJob, this film might just be the impetus to get out while you can. [us]

the piano

Jane Campion proves she's one of the decade's premiere directors in her literate and richly layered movie about cultural conflict, repression, art, and, the role of women in the 19th century. Holly Hunter plays a mute Scotswoman, piano player, and mail-order bride who finds herself repelled by her stolid husband but intensely attracted to the Maori wilderness in which she finds herself. Her expressive face more than makes up for her lack of words, and Anna Paquin, as her on-the brink of adolescence daughter is a real find. [nz]

crossing delancey

Amy Irving stars as Izzy, an intellectual-worshipping bookstore clerk who's Bubby attempts to play matchmaker for her. Despite her protests that matchmaking is not part of her hip Manhattan lifestyle, Izzy agrees to meet the match, who turns out to be the charming and gentle pickle-salesman from across Delancy street. The crux of this sweet little movie is whether Izzy will finally come to her senses and recognize the difference between pompous posers and true love... [us]

career girls

Eons away from the perky babes of Friends come two very real English misfits, warts and all. As the two working girls reminisce on their time together as students, each reveals her hurts, disappointments, vanquished dreams and plans for a sunnier future. Leigh exposes the insecurities, self-consciousness, and meanness of early adulthood so jarringly, it's amazing to think any of us survived, let alone are able to laugh at the absurdity of it all. [uk]

citizen ruth

Laura Dern is all jangled nerves, boozy chatter and bad girl intoxication as Ruth, a pregnant glue-sniffer who gets caught in the cross-fire between the pro-life and pro-choice movements. Jabs are taken at all sides as Ruth finally works the game her way. A provocative and hilarious satire that offers no easy answers. [us]

babette's feast

A group of religious zealots living in an aging and isolated community discovers a lesson of love and forgiveness when a quiet maid prepares a lavish and extravagant feast for them. The stark, barren landscape, and puritan houses provide bas relief to Babette's earthy and sensual banquet. 1987 Academy Award winner for best foreign film. [denmark]

when the cat's away

When the solitary Chole loses her adored cat, she is forced to get to know her Parisian neighbourhood. During her search (the beginning of her personal awakening), she meets a self-centered drummer; a dim-witted man who devotes himself to the search; a network of eccentric, gossipy old ladies full of life despite rapidly changing storefronts and threats of eviction; and finally the prospect of love. Slight, charming and unusually ordinary. [france]

gorillas in the mist

With a towering intensity, Sigourney Weaver inhabits her role Dian Fossey, the primatologist who paid dearly for protecting the mountain gorillas of central Africa. She lost her lover, her sanity and eventually her life. Beautifully shot and occasionally frustrating, the movie soars in its portrayal of the tender relationship between the fierce Fossey and her beloved gorillas. [us]

secrets and lies

The gritty story of a successful black adoptee who tracks down her birth mother only to discover mom is not only psychologically unstable and barely educated, but also white. Add a couple battling infertility, and an unforgettable family reunion, and you have skeletons tumbling out of the closet. Raw, painful, and hilarious, Mike Leigh's film is the most powerful exploration of the fallout of closed adoption records to date. [uk]

the incredibly true story of two girls in love

A quirky, light-hearted tale of first love -- only here it's between two young girls. In a nice stereotype switch, Randi is a wrong-side-of-the-tracks white girl who lives with her granola-eating aunts while the graceful Evie is a wealthy black girl who lives in a manicured neighbourhood and is enroute to Harvard. The film moves fast, and Go Fish director Maria Maggenti, ably depicts the goofy excessiveness of teen love without getting political. [us]

angel at my table

Jane Campion's film is based on the true story of New Zealand's most famous poet Janet Frame. As a child the awkward, shy, yet insightful Janet didn't fit in which lead her to being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, and committed to a psychiatric hospital where she endured electric shock "therapy." However, Janet endured, was finally released and began winning poetry awards and international acclaim. Although ultimately uplifting this film is quite heavy in places, and is quite long since it was originally a television series. Make sure you're prepared to spend the time and emotional effort when you see it. [nz]

sweetie

Another Jane Campion film, this time her directorial debut, with the story of the dysfunctional relationship between two sisters. Sweetie is the obsessive, demanding, and coddled sister who is the catalyst for all family dynamics, but the story is really about how the other characters deal and interact with her. Quirky and offbeat, this film shows the beginnings of Campion's immense talent. [nz]

life is sweet

An early film by Mike Leigh, champion of working-class British life, this often hilarious portrait of a slightly off-beat family. Dad's dream, much to the chagrin of his family, is to own a chip wagon. The teenage twin daughters can't stand each other. One twin who refers to everyone as "fascist" is also a border-line anorexic. Jane Horrocks [Little Voice, Career Girls] is perfect as the fascism obsessed teen. Believe it or not, this is a wonderfully uplifting film, and true to it's title, life is sweet. [uk]

margaret's museum

A wacky but haunting piece of East Coast Canadiana. The cast of eccentric characters includes Margaret, the snotty nosed whore, a sharp-tongued mother, a dust-infested grand-father who needs a regular thumping, and a bagpipe blowing love interest. It may be bizarre, but it's also a bracingly original and emotionally compelling portrait of a mining town yoked to its death traps like an alcoholic to his bottle. [canada]

hilary and jackie

A tormented tale of sisterly rivalry and love. Hilary is plain and grounded sister. Jackie is a flamboyant and famous Cellist. Yet, despite Jackie's glorious golden locks, sexy way with a cello, and glamorous jetsetting lifestyle, she desperately wants what Hilary has: her husband, her children, her rural life. Emotionally wrenching performances by both talented leads, and, of course, luscious music. [uk]

carrington

This artistic period piece explores the unconventional and unwavering love between a delicate, gay writer and his devoted female companion, painter Dora Carrington. That the love could never be properly fulfilled results in great sadness as each partner dabbles in other love relationships. Emma Thompson provides the movie's soul as foil to the flashier wittier role inhabited by Jonathon Pryce. [uk]

guinevere

Canadian bright light Sarah Polley is so convincing as an awkward and insecure 20-year-old who falls for an aging bohemian that she makes you forget how ridiculously beautiful she is. Directed by Audrey Wells (The Truth About Cats and Dogs), this slight film takes a closer look at May-December relationships revealing what each partner gains from the other. As the sarcastic, socialite mom, Jean Harper provides a brash counterpoint to her daughter's meekness. Her showdown with the man "who's fucking my daughter," is worth the price of admission. [us]

i've heard the mermaids singing

The heroine of this independent Canadian film is such a wallflower that a receptionist job at a small art gallery is the height of success for her. Her overactive dream life has her flying over the skyscrapers of Toronto, yet blissfully unaware of facts in her own life. The slow realization that her boss is a lesbian is enough to rock her world. Quirky and sweet. [canada]

84 charing cross road

This book-lovers film centres on an aspiring New York screenwriter and voracious reader (in an exuberant turn by Anne Bancroft) who befriends the stodgy but warm-hearted owner of an antique book store in London (Anthony Hopkins). Their platonic relationship, which evolves over the years through letters, is marked by kindness and intellectual curiosity. She is an example of a woman who leads an extraordinarily ordinary life. [uk/us]

rosetta

This extremely bleak film--a grim look at the details of a 17-year-old girl's life--is unsettling on all levels. Shot with a hand-held camera, it's physically nauseating as well as mentally disturbing. We are privy to the ungainly Rosetta's harsh life from her life in a trailer park where she deals with poverty and her drunken mother. All she craves is a normal life, but in the outer world, she struggles to find a job and has awkward interactions with the opposite sex. This 1999 Cannes winner is ugly, depressing and raw, but likely true. [belgium]

never been kissed

It's hard not to like Drew Barrymore. Her Boticelli roundness and girlish charm are a welcome reprieve from Ally McBeal's wafer thin flakiness. And she ably inhabits her character as a high school misfit in this goofy comedy about teen humiliation. But in true Hollywood style, she rises above it all, develops poise, and falls for her teacher in a groan-inducing finale. Call it a guilty pleasure. [us]

bastard out of carolina

Be warned: this harrowing tale of childhood abuse and poverty in the Southern US may gnaw away at your restful dreams. Jena Malone puts in a tragic turn as the fragile Bone who suffers at the hands of her unstable stepfather while mom's love wavers between dad and daughter. Luckily, later in the pic, a strong woman, happy with her unmarried life and one that leaves ample time for fishing, offers a teensy glimmer of hope for Bone's future. Overall, hard to like, but impossible to dismiss. [us]

tumbleweeds

A rootless mother-daughter duo flit from man to man and state to state until they wash up in California. Janet McTeer gives a sexy performance as the exuberant Southern mom whose sardonic daughter acts as counterpoint to her own recklessness. The pair shares a deep intimacy rarely found in teen movies where parents are often cast as morons and peers as catty models in waiting. Mom is so wide open, she teaches her daughter how to kiss using an apple, and later the pair gets giddy on the hilarity of menstruation. Neatly averts cliché. [us]

touched

A bitter booze-soaked widow is slowly transformed after she hooks up with a young sensuous wanderer who adores her from the inside out. It's a gritty and magical look at life on a First Nations reserve and the "beauty and the beast" of mental illness. The film provides Lynn Redgrave with a complex role where she reveals the strength and fragility of an aging woman facing life's demons head-on. [canada]

new waterford girl

Hard not to like Mooney Pottie, a surly 15-year-old geek whose every pore screams "get me out of this stinking seaside town!" That is until a spunky big town, New York gal moves in next door and pulls her out of her stifling funk. Thankfully, nothing in this gritty gem unfolds as expected. The headstrong newcomer cheerfully knocks out errant boyfriends. Pregnant teens flee Aunt Agnes's Home for Wayward Girls. And Mooney's unlikely escape plan nearly causes the town a collective nervous breakdown. Full of snarky "go girl" energy, kooky characters, and bleak yet striking scenery. A wicked find. [canada]

bossa nova

Like a sweating pitcher of Sangria on a sun-baked day, this romance is refreshing but not too sweet. Starring Amy Irving, and produced by her husband as a love letter to her, the film centers on an English teacher in Brazil whose students and casual acquaintances fall in love (often with her). Any romance worth its salt doesn't run smoothly and this one is full of missed meetings and mistaken identities. Recommended summer, fun bopping along to a syncopated beat. [us/brazil]

circle of friends

Minnie Driver makes her debut in this quiet coming of age story based on a book by Maeve Binchy. Driver portrays an awkward overweight(!) small-town Irish girl who falls in love with the boy next door (a handsome Chris O'Donnell). Although sometimes overly sentimental, this film is enjoyable for its portrayal of young women struggling with adulthood and a strict Irish Catholic upbringing. [us/uk]

the prompter

A predictable, but sweet film about an opera prompter who marries for romance but not for love. Siv is passionate about her work, even more so than some of the stars she prompts. Her passion makes her a bit naive in other areas, and she marries a cold doctor who is essentially looking for a nanny for his two children. However, things change when she meets the sensitive tuba player...[norway]

dancer in the dark

It's a love it or hate it film. Love it for the exceptional concept and stunning performance by Bjork. Hate it for the overly melodramatic plot and nausea-inducing hand-held camera. Love it or hate it for Bjork's soundtrack. It's powerful, sickening, depressing, and uplifting. Not an easy ride, but definitely worth seeing. [denmark, 2000]

suspicious river

Molly Parker gives another eerie performance for Canadian director Lynne Stopkewich (Kissed). This time she’s as a small-town girl who’s fresh complexion belies her shattered inside. In a tale worthy of David Lynch, Molly plays a squeaky clean married gal who works the front desk of the local motel while turning rough tricks in the ragged bedrooms. It’s not long before a sadistic but charismatic creep is guiding her towards her inevitable soul-crushing destruction. Tough to take. [canada, 2000]

boys don't cry

Pain spills off the screen in this tragic depiction of a boy trapped in a girl's body. Hilary Swank nabbed an Oscar for her ingenuous high-wire act as boy-girl Teena Brandon, and Chloe Sevigny dazzles as the fierce lover who yearns to escape her no-way-out life. It's a bleak portrait of trailer park desperation, and yet it avoids the cheap characters typical of White Trash movies. All the players, from the boozing mom right down to the wounded creeps who commit their brutal acts, are acutely drawn. Intense, graphic, sharply shot, and unforgettable. [us, 1999]

safe

Julianne Moore plays a listless housewife who has it all. Problem is she's allergic to it all...the sleek furniture, the manicured garden, the jammed freeway, and the dead relationship. Her pursuit for a cure to chemical overload acts as a terrifying symbol for the emotional distress, anxiety, anger, and spiritual vacancy of urban life. Moore plays her soul-deadened housewife with sensitivity and restraint, which makes her journey into the heart of mental toxic darkness all the more eerie. [us, 1995]

next stop wonderland

Maybe it's the samba soundtrack. Maybe it's the melancholic sweetness of its lead character. Either way, it's a nice "alone at home without a date movie" (silly Mafia subplot notwithstanding). A single twentysomething woman's over-zealous mother places a personal ad in the paper for her daughter Erin. Erin, who is smart, well read and emotionally balanced, winds up dating a string of losers. She corrects their misquotes and blows holes in their vapid philosophies until she meets...ah go on, rent it and find out. [us, 1998]

little voice

Call it a small victory for shy people. Here the mute-like Little Voice or LV lives in a domestic hell cloistered in her bedroom terrorized by her overbearing mother and aching for her dead father. While Ma tries to get her hands into the local slimeball's shiny pants, LV, who has virtually no speaking voice, belts out tunes by Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Marlene Dietrich, and other classic divas in her room. Jane Horrocks reprises her stage role singing for real, and pretty much owns the movie. [uk, 1998]

state and main

Rebecca Pidgeon (AKA Mrs David Mamet) makes the already amusing send-up of a sleazy Hollywood crew filming in small town Vermont that much funnier. As the town's eccentric used bookstore owner and local theatre whizkid, the brainy, practical, and unfettered Annie is always three steps ahead of the game. Confident and slightly kooky, she provides the film's moral center and saves at least one soul from Hollywood purgatory when she steers a desperately confused screenwriter towards the second chance he so richly needs. [us, 2000]

parsley days

This quirky look at 20-something life begins where most movies end: with the perfect relationship. Here, secretly pregnant Kate, a bike mechanic, is living with Ollie, a man so endearing her lesbian friends claim he's a lesbian trapped in a man's body. The movie follows Kate as she struggles over whether to breakup with Ollie, while simultaneously attempting to induce abortion by eating massive amounts of parsley. Kate is surrounded by neat friends, a herbalist, a performance artist, a pair of 70-something lovebirds, and a lot of bicycle enthusiasts. And like any good Canadian movie, the canoe is a character unto itself. [can, 2001]

rachel, rachel

Joanne Woodward stars in this Paul Newman-directed indie film about a repressed small-town schoolteacher. Rachel is nagged by her lonely mother while she's haunted by memories of her kind but aloof undertaker father. She's resigned to her lonely existence until a series of events including a Christian revival meeting and a chance encounter with a childhood friend shock her out of her complacency. Well-acted. Well-shot. A small gem. [us, 1968]

ghost world

Thora Birch, the rebellious daughter from American Beauty gives smart, misfit teens another shot of cool. As Enid, she struts through a year of post-high school cynicism decked in yard-sale apparel aiming barbs at big business and the dim-witted. She also struggles through a relationship with her best friend, sparks an odd liaison with a bookish 40-ish record collector, grapples with remedial art school, and fails hilariously at working. Like its protagonist, the film is snarky on the surface, but down deep, it's the real thing. [us 2001]

wonderland

This scruffy glimpse of London working class life finds beauty in the ordinary. Wonderland centres on three working class sisters who stumble along seeking fulfillment. One hopes for love, the other wants stability, the third craves pleasure. Circling around their lives are children, ex-husbands, estranged siblings, one-night stands, future lovers, bickering parents, and barking dogs. It's poignant and realistic without being grim. And the cinematography makes wet city traffic look better than all the sweeping velds in Africa. [uk 2000]

kissing jessica stein

Think "Sex in The City" meets Woody Allen. Here Jessica, a neurotic, bookish New York Jew, looks for love in all the wrong places, until she responds to a personal ad from Helen, a voracious man-eater. Superficially, the film explores the notion of a sexual continuum. After all both Helen and Jessica are "straight". Or are they? In the end, it doesn't really matter. There are plenty of laughs as Jessica avoids telling anyone about her new love, and grapples with the idea of S-E-X. Full of sharp dialogue, and an assortment of witty and amusing characters, including a standout Jewish mother that I dare you to say "No" to. [us 2002]

the good girl

If you're inclined to miss this film because it stars Jennifer Aniston, don't! After the first 20 minutes you'll completely forget her celibrity life and that guilty-pleasure sitcom. Aniston turns in a fabulous performance as a small-town working at a dead-end job at a Walmart rip-off and married to a stoner-house painter husband. Escape appears by the way of "Holden", a broody coworker with whom Justine embarks on an affair, simply to ease her bordem. While at times veering towards maudlin, the film works because the cast is so strong and the camera's eye is unflinching. Painfully funny and just plain painful---if you've ever wondered just how you ended up in the life you're living, see it. [us 2002]

my big fat greek wedding

The phrase "wacky comedy" was invented for laugh-a-minute movies like this one. This low-budget sleeper centers on 30-something Nia whose meddlesome Greek family plots to halt her romance with a non-Greek boy (Chris from Northern Exposure). Zany characters include an overbearing mother, a paternalistic father, a practical-joker brother, a wandering grandmother from the "old country", a pushy aunt (a hilarious Andrea Martin from Second City), a stream of boisterous cousins, a parade of Greek suitors, and more (seriously!). Non-stop fun for anyone who ever felt they couldn't escape the oppressive yoke of their family. [us 2002]

mostly martha

Another fine foodie movie along the lines of Chocolat and Babette's Feast. Only this time it's an uptight German chef whose exquisite dishes get screen-time. Martha's orderly life as queen of the kitchen comes undone when her grief-stricken niece, Lina, comes into her care. The kicker is she won't eat any of her fine French cuisine. Lina's appetite shifts when a warm-hearted Italian chef enters the picture with old-style pasta dishes and a way with Tiramisu - and Martha. Features a quirky, toe-tapping soundtrack. Make reservations for dinner after the show. Or better still cook at home. [germany 2002]

frida

A boisterous and colourful biopic, Frida pulls you in right from the vividly represented bus accident that informed her life through to her death at 47. It’s got everything – a fascinating subject, a first-rate performance, a touch of sentimentality, and a visual sensibility that mimics the artist’s own surreal style. Salma Hayek’s injects the iconic painter with a stoic toughness and joie de vivre that belies her character’s immense physical and emotional pain. It’s also a great romance that gives insight into Frida’s on again, off again relationship with the adulterous larger-than-life muralist, Diego Rivera. [us, 2002]

gabbeh

Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s dreamy tale of a young Iranian girl’s desire to marry a distant horseman hardly seems subversive, and yet it was banned in Iran. Why? Simply because the story centres on a young woman, and is told from a woman's point of view. And yet the film, which the director dubs “poetic realism”, is a simple lyrical tale that chronicles the day-to-day activities of tapestry-weaving nomads. What really sets the film apart is its startling visual artistry – vibrant, colourful and surreal. [iran, 2002]

personal velocity

Personal Velocity presents three tiny perfect stories of three women, each with their own dilemma. Weaving together flashbacks and narration, each story takes its protagonist past confusion to the first glimpse of clarity. In “Delia” Kira Sedgwick plays an aging “class slut” who finds herself mid-30’s with three kids and an abusive husband. In “Greta,” our indie darling Parker Posey is a privileged Manhattanite, who rebels against her philandering father by underachieving and by marrying the antithesis of him. In “Paula” Fairuza Balk is a pregnant two-time runaway who understands her own doubts by picking up an uncommunicative hitchhiker. Our only wish for this film was that the director had trusted the strong performances of her leads and skipped some of the narration and flashbacks, but see it anyway -- highly recommended. [us, 2002]

pieces of april

water

Deepa Meetha’s tale of two young widows – an eight-year-old and a 20something woman (the luminous Lisa Ray in a serious role) is as heartbreaking as it is poetic and achingly gorgeous. Set in Varnasi circa 1930, the film takes cues from Romeo and Juliet and Bollywood to explore the cruel realities for widowed women forced into an ashram where they subsist until they are old enough to sell their bodies. With the Ganges as its central metaphor, the film is awash in water symbols: funeral pyres on the river banks, floating candles, morning ablutions, and the purifying monsoon rains. A tragedy at heart, the film is nonetheless full of energetic life-affirming scenes of dance, play and love. [canada, 2005]

eve and the firehorse

If Jesus dances with Buddha, who leads? This is one of the images and questions that will stick with you after seeing Vancouverite Julia Kwan’s first feature and Sundance hit. A mix of magic realism, 70s nostalgia, death and religion, the story is told by a nine-year-old Chinese-Canadian born in the year of the fire horse (babies born in this damned year were typically drowned in the river). After a string of bad luck, the Buddhist sisters turn to Catholicism to secure some everlasting glory for the family. But when the two young sisters shoot for sainthood to “save” the family, it takes them down a path that irrevocably changes their family. [canada, 2006]

june bug

The premise is simple: big city art-dealer Madeline, goes to meet "down-home" family of new husband George. In a twist on the predictable, the main purpose of the trip is to meet a new artist for her gallery, and the family just happened to be nearby. This small independent film is a secure complex, often comic, story of relations, roots, and folk art, where prejudices on all sides are held up to light. Amy Adams was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Ashley, the hopelessly optimistic, and heavily pregnant sister-in-law who believes family is stronger than just about anything. This seemingly simple film grows on you, just as Ashley does. [usa, 2005]

the journey (sancharram)

This coming of age story set in rural southern India features three friends and a love triangle, and tackles the often forbidden topic of lesbianism. Kiran, Lila, and Rajan are childhood friends in a Catholic area of Kerla in southern India. As they mature, Rajan and Kiran both discover feelings for Lila. Rajan solicits Kiran, a budding writers help in wooing Lila. The resulting heart-felt letters help Kiran and eventually Lila discover the passionate love she holds for her best girlfriend. [us/india, 2004]

sabah

This endearing little story, stars Arsinee Khanjian, as the title character, a 40-year old Iranian woman who begins an affair with a Canadian man. Sabah reclaims her body by sneaking away from her overbearing mother and brother to swim, something she hasn’t done since she was a child. At the pool she meets a handsome, sensitive, divorced carpenter and tentatively begins a secret relationship with him. This hopeful love story speaks to the power of tradition, family, and finding yourself. [Canada, 2005]

fear and trembling