MARION BRIDGE

Country: Canada
Director: Wiebke von Carolsfeld
Lead Actors : Molly Parker, Rebecca Jenkins, Stacy Smith, Marguerite McNeil, Ellen Page
Running time: 90 min.
Rating: 14A (Coarse language, drug use)

CityTV Award for Best Canadian First Feature - The 2002 Toronto Internatioal Film Festival

MARION BRIDGE was the surprise feel-good hit of the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and the winner of the Best Canadian First Feature Award. Working with a script by well-known playwright and actor Daniel MacIvor, editor turned director Wiebke von Carolsfeld has confidently stepped behind the camera to achieve a work of rare subtlety and warmth.

The setting is the post-industrial landscape of Cape Breton. Agnes (Molly Parker, WAR BRIDE, SUNSHINE, LAST WEDDING) has returned home to Sydney, Nova Scotia from Toronto to visit her ailing mother, an alcoholic chain-smoker. Years earlier, Agnes left to escape the secret that haunted her. Having fought her own battle with alcohol, she returns home sober, strong and seemingly able to face the past she fled. Her sisters, Theresa (Rebecca Jenkins of BYE BYE BLUES) and Louise (Stacy Smith, NEW WATERFORD GIRL), are less convinced and when Agnes goes off on unexplained, solitary drives, the sisters suspect that what little peace they have known will be destroyed. Agnes’s actions set off a chain of events that pries open a long-shuttered past and emotionally re-forges an uplifting bond between the three sisters.

The triumph of MARION BRIDGE is its perfect mix of first-rate performances, a beautiful script and skilled direction. Parker, Jenkins and Smith all shine: from the moment they first appear onscreen, each actor shimmers with detailed life, effortlessly suggesting depths of truth that unfailingly intrigues. Von Carolsfeld has an eye-opening sense of drama and awakens worlds of expression from the smallest gesture or mundane situation. Specters of the past and yearnings of the present float just under the surface of MARION BRIDGE, fueling a delicate story of forgiveness and understanding, told with extraordinary compassion.

"Brilliant feature film debut” – National Post