Cinemanovels.
This nicely quirky drama features excellent Vancouver apartments and a story about the estranged daughter (portrayed by an affecting Lauren Lee Smith) of a recently deceased, famous and fictitious francophone filmmaker, John Laurentian. The film-within-a-film moments are smartly done, and the effect blurs the lines between fiction and reality, but the curious plot is helped along by a series of highly contrived happenstances. Still, the ensemble cast clicks, and the ribbon-tied ending is always in doubt.
At VIFF: Oct. 2, 6:30 pm, Rio; Oct. 10, 1:15 pm, SFU
Watch this film's trailer and rate how much you want to see it.
Brad Wheeler