A SIMPLE CURVE

Director: Aubrey Nealon
Cast: Kris Lemche, Michael Hogan, Matt Craven, Pascale Hutton, Sarah Lind
Runtime: 92 minutes
Country: Canada
Rating: Not yet rated

"It's an old joke about a hippie child who rebels against his parents by turning into a capitalist. But in the hands of B.C.'s Aubrey Nealon, there's great poignancy to it: what if you realize that it's your parents who never really grew up?" - Toronto Star

A Canada First! presentation at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival®, A SIMPLE CURVE is a truly remarkable first film for acclaimed short film director Aubrey Nealon.

Rebelling against one’s parents is generally considered a rite of passage for teenagers. Twenty-seven-year-old Caleb (Kris Lemche, GINGER SNAPS, SAINT JUDE), however, has somehow missed this crucial step. Maybe it’s because he was raised in British Columbia by laid-back, hippie parents who didn’t give him much to rebel against. But his growing dissatisfaction with his life and his relationship with his father has Caleb making up for lost time.

Caleb has always had an easygoing relationship with his dad, Jim (veteran TV actor Michael Hogan). They run a small carpentry shop together and relate more as friends than family. Outward appearances present a rather idyllic picture, but tensions between father and son are mounting. Jim is an idealist: he escaped the American draft to the natural splendour of the majestic Kootenays region, eking out a living as a craftsman of fine woodwork. Jim’s ideals, however, are not paying the bills. He and Caleb simply cannot compete with mass-produced particleboard and Caleb is increasingly fed up with his father’s perfectionism. Then Matthew (Matt Craven, THE STATEMENT), an old friend of Jim’s, arrives in the valley with plans to develop a high-end fishing lodge - a project Jim opposes but Caleb secretly hopes will save their business. As he navigates his way through the opposing visions of Jim and Matthew, Caleb realizes the time to forge his own path has arrived.

A SIMPLE CURVE is a thoroughly delightful and assured film with nary a msstep in storytelling nor characterization. Lemche is charming as the conflicted but confident Caleb, while Hogan embodies Jim's relentless high-mindedness with aplomb. As Caleb increasingly finds himself surrounded by newcomers certain they have found nirvana, he realizes that finding his own paradise may require leaving this one behind. Aubrey Nealon is a filmmaker to watch for.

"A refreshing take on an overused theme – dysfunctional father-son connections – starts gently and gets more compelling as it glides along like a woodworker’s sharpened plane over smooth surfaces … it’s difficult to believe Nealon’s hands have not been calloused by making features before this elegant gem." – Ken Eisner, Variety