On the Corner
Written and directed by
Nathaniel Geary
Starring Alex Rice, Simon Baker, Katharine Isabelle,
Gordon Tootoosis, JR Bourne
Classification: 18A
Rating: **½
Nathaniel Geary's debut feature is the story of two natives goin' down the road from Prince Rupert to the dead end of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
On the Corner is convincingly staged, and filmmaker Geary deftly captures the junkie food chain in an early sequence that finds the just-arrived teenager Randy Henry trying to bum a smoke from one of the Pennsylvania Hotel's mid-level entrepreneurs, Cliffe, a wild-eyed crack dealer.
"No, I don't have any cigarettes," the older boy shouts, upset that a player of his stature should be slowed down, even for a moment. Then, seconds later, Cliffe puts on his work face. "Hey-hey," he beams, suddenly upbeat upon meeting strangers. "You guys got an extra cigarette?"
Randy has come to Vancouver to flee an unpleasant foster-parent situation and re-connect with his big sister, who left home six years earlier. By leaving the reservation, though, Angel Henry escaped nothing; now she's a junkie hooker living at the Pennsylvania -- middle-aged and ready for the morgue at age 23.
Angel's best friend and neighbour is Stacey, another prostitute. Down the hall lives Floyd, a virtuous old timer who knew Angel's and Randy's mysteriously departed dad. Floyd eventually takes Randy in and offers him a job "binning" -- recovering bottles from trash cans.
"Get used to the smell. I don't even notice it any more," Floyd advises his junior partner, ripping open a fragrant sack of refuse. The youngster turns away, appalled. Soon, Randy will be working a different corner of the street, peddling dope and eventually, himself.
On the Corner seems mindful of the NFB tradition of downer naturalism. Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road, another film about desperate seekers who get smacked by the pot at the end of the rainbow, is an obvious reference point.
Filmmaker Geary, who spent seven years as a counsellor at a Vancouver shelter for drug addicts and the mentally ill, has a real facility with actors. The minor players in particular, Gordon Tootoosis's affable, watchful Floyd, JR Bourne's volcano-tempered Cliffe, and Brent Stait's menacing neighbourhood dealer-strongman, are uniformly vivid characters.
The film seems to lose focus, unfortunately, when it comes to the native leads. We're not sure why Angel off-loads her brother onto Floyd when he arrives, then wants to deliver him from all evil. And the B-story through-line -- what happened to the kids' dad? -- is never satisfactorily resolved.
Nor does it help that Alex Rice, who boasts two rows of even, gleaming teeth, seems too well scrubbed to play Death's Angel.
Still, the major problem here is filmmaker Geary's relationship with his leads. He's too restrained and not nearly curious enough, in exploring the Henry family dynamics. His shyness makes it impossible for us to really get to know Angel. For some reason, when johns drive by, they always want her less attractive best friend, Stacey (Katharine Isabelle). Even hooking, Angel is off-limits.
One hopes that Geary, a filmmaker of promise, will get an opportunity to make a more uninhibited movie some time soon. The best scenes here, which usually involve minor characters spinning out of control, exhibit an appetite for danger that is seldom found in Canadian cinema. It would be interesting to see what he could do with a comedy or murder mystery.
Special to The Globe and Mail