(2006) Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman), a morose Brit, after arriving in Ontario on his way to Winnipeg, reluctantly agrees to give a lift to a chatty young woman, Vivienne (Emily Hampshire), on her way to Wawa. On their way, to quell her loquaciousness, he informs her of his just having been released from prison for killing someone (at first it's not clear whether he's invented this or not); nevertheless, her insuppressible exuberance begins to lift his mood somewhat.

Full of questions (she's an aspiring writer who looks for lonely people because they have the best stories), calling him Mr Sarcastic, she asks about his family: no kids ("Low sperm count?" No, "low partner count"), parents dead, one exceedingly prosperous brother harboring enmity (there's an astonished woman behind every successful man; no, he's gay). After stopping at a store (Vivienne buys sparklies for her mother whom she's going to visit), a semi slams into the passenger side of the car, killing Vivienne.

Only slightly injured, taking a bus to Wawa, Alex knocks on Vivienne's mother's door. Linda Freeman (Sigourney Weaver), unmarried, living alone, already informed of her daughter's death (a neighbor paying her respects was just leaving as Alex arrives), allows him inside. Alex gives her the sparklies before breaking down, sobbing with guilt, though he was not responsible for the collision.

Emotionally distant but verbally voluble and exhibiting childish impulses, Linda demands that Alex remain until Tuesday when the garbage must be taken out, a chore Vivienne would have performed for her. However, there are strict rules to be observed: he is not to enter her kitchen; he is to sleep in the lower bunkbed, "and if you try to touch me, I'll shoot you."

Next door lives Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss), a very attractive thirtysomething brunet, whom Linda shuns, telling Alex that she's a prostitute; using the pretext of taking Linda's dog for a walk, Alex pays a visit in the evening with Maggie.

Accepting responsibility for funeral arrangements on Monday (Linda's parents are off hiking, remote from communications), he accompanies Linda to identify Vivienne's body and plays Scrabble with her in which she says invented words are acceptable, such as "yaamool" and "dazlious." When Alex refuses him entry to express his regret, the truck driver who crashed into Alex's car says: "Haven't you ever made a mistake?" At the funeral Linda's father Dirk reads from an unfinished children's picturebook Vivienne had been writing about a four-year-old brother named James, who seems to be a stand-in for Linda.

In her dry-eyed, cold impassiveness she tells Alex: "We all have to get over it." Unexpectedly his spirit has been lifted throughout, permitting him to reveal the underlying cause of his grief while feeling a spring of optimism: "I'm beginning to like this …" being with Maggie, Linda, and himself.

This dazlious story, screenplay by Angela Pell, imbued with memorable characters brought vividly to life, directed by Marc Evans, with consistently strong performances (Weaver and Rickman's are eloquently affecting) could have allowed for dispensing with the melodramatic, symmetrical structure of coincidences.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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