(Canada, 118 min.)
Written and directed by Gia Milani
Starring: Karine Vanasse, Cory Monteith, Emily Hampshire,
Kevin Zegers
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| (L to R) Cory Monteith and Emily Hampshire in All the Wrong Reasons. |
Ah, the big box store. It’s the place where everything is
easy and accessible. Life is one-stop shopping with groceries, clothes, and
electronics only a few aisles away and all for low, low prices. If only life
could be so perfect!
The people who run the big box store in All the Wrong Reasons, however, are an imperfect bunch. Each of the
four employees writer/director Gia Milani follows at a fictional big box store
called Fairfax are all dealing with trauma—how un-Walmart-y!—as they satisfy
customers under the fluorescent lights. There’s Kate Ascher (Karine Vanasse),
who runs store surveillance from a comfortable distance. Observing the action
of the store through cameras and monitors, Kate escapes in isolation and
watches over her colleagues and their customers to escape the memory seeing her
sister die before her eyes.
Kate’s husband, James (Cory Monteith), managers the store,
but he fails to treat his aloof wife with the same courtesy and patience with
which he serves the customers. James tires of Kate’s fear of human
connection—her crippling anxiety leaves her in fear of human contact—so he
begins an affair with a saucy cashier named Nicole (Emily Hampshire). Nicole
struggles with personal demons of her own, since her impatience with
single-motherhood leaves her nostalgic for her fading youth and spending her
retail wage on Botox instead of on babysitters. Simon (Kevin Zegers), finally,
starts a new job as a temporary security guard at the store, but the physical
scars left by an accident in his previous career put his self-confidence and
security in as much of mess as Kate’s does.
All the Wrong Reasons
feels relatable and real as Milani presents a quartet of characters who are
flawed and fleshed out. The arcs that transform Kate, James, Nicole, and Simon
are believable journeys. The naturalism of the script makes the film steadily convincing,
for Milani observes the characters with an authentic eye.
The way the characters react to trauma feels true to life,
especially Kate’s guarded relationship with her husband and colleagues. She
builds invisible walls around herself, best symbolized in the literal comfort
zone marked in red tape around her workstation, which prevents people from
touching her outside of her own terms. Her marriage with James is just as
mediated as her voyeuristic glances through the store, as Kate insists on
cybersex despite the fact that she and James once shared a bed. These characters
are idiosyncratic enough to make All the
Wrong Reasons appealing and engaging, but Milani dramatizes the human
condition with enough sobriety and restraint to make the drama feel
consistently real.
Audiences will likely give attention to All the Wrong Reasons since it’s one of two films that actor Cory
Monteith wrapped before his tragic death in 2013. (The other film is McCanick.) Glee fans will especially be impressed by the darker side that
Monteith shows while playing the philandering James, for the actor does a fine
job of presenting James’s stuffy air for keeping up appearances. If Monteith’s
performance leaves viewers sad for the loss of a young talent, though, the performances
by his fellow Canuck stars are cause for celebration.
Vanasse is very strong as Kate, which is arguably the most
complicated role of the film. Vanasse carries much of the film by moving
back-and-forth between Kate’s anxious outbursts and her subtle moments where
she sits frozen by her monitors, eager to reach out to the people she watches
but afraid of intimacy and communication. Zegers, sporting a heavy East Coast
accent for the Nova Scotia production, impresses with a largely physical
performance that contrasts with Kate’s standoffish demeanour. Hampshire,
finally, gives another notable turn as Nicole. Hampshire dares the audience to
dislike Nicole as she presents a woman who is both uncomfortable with her body
and eager to flaunt what she still has. Youthful, yet jaded, while being funny,
but also strung-out and pitiable, Hampshire best realizes the flaws that Milani
injects into the characters of her film.
The simple and straightforward aesthetic of Milani’s
direction lets the writing and acting feel real and raw under the bright
fluorescent lighting that DP Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron floods into the frame.
(All the Wrong Reasons even features
a nice nod to the cinematographer when Kate pops a copy of Les amours imaginaires into the home video department of the store
and lets the vibrant colours of the film play on every screen.) Milani makes an
assured feature debut as a director by letting the ensemble of All the Wrong Reasons inhabit the skins
of these complicated characters. A colourful supporting cast featuring local
talents and veterans like Marguerite McNeil add to the film’s humorously
spot-on realization of the strange family dynamic that thrives in a retail
environment. All the Wrong Reasons,
with its authentic ensemble, is both a bittersweet farewell and a welcome
celebration for Canadian talent.
Rating: ★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
All the Wrong Reasons will be available on DVD, VOD, iTunes, and
SONY across Canada on June 23, 2014.
