Mar. 06, 2013 - Issue #907: Garbage Goes Green
Cloudburst
But 31 years of living together blissfully, despite Stella's brashness and Dottie's increasing fatigue, gets tossed into jeopardy when Dot's granddaughter—who seems daftly blind to the idea that grandma's roommate might also be her lover—has her committed to an institution. Stella busts her out, and they make a break for Canada to get married, picking up a young male hitchhiker (Ryan Doucette) who tags along for the ride.
It's a road-trip comedy on a set path, one that's definitely sweet and simple. But the strength of Cloudburst stems from its refusal to temper its humour or sacrifice the genuine tenderness of the leads' relationship for quick gags or cheap pulls at the heartstrings. They're a good screen pairing: Dukakis's almost aggravating belligerence and Fricker's totally unassuming Dot mesh easily for some shining moments of tenderness, all set in the lush scenery of Nova Scotia. We get the feeling that they might not have that much time left, but we also get the sense that they're genuinely making the most of it.
At the age of 66, Fricker—who has an Academy Award to her name for 1989's My Left Foot—is a bit of a firecracker on the phone. "Well, have you seen the film?" she responds when asked what drew her to the project. "Well then you must know.
"My first impression was that it's the most beautiful love story I've ever read," she says. "It shows how two people of any sex—man and woman, or man and man, or whatever—that two people are capable of loving each other through anything. ... That scene, where she's bathing me in the tub, and she's washing my arm, scenes like that show, I think—I've never loved anyone like that. And I don't know many people who have."
Fricker notes the rehearsal period was particularly condensed—she and Dukakis would gather after days of filming in the hotel to go over the next day's scenes—and the sweltering heat of a maritime summer took its toll. However, she has nothing but praise for Dukakis, and particularly high regard for Fitzgerald, who developed the film from his hit play, in addition to directing the film version.
"I can't explain humour," she says. "Humour is humour; you crack a joke, somebody laughs, it's funny. I don't know why. But I think [Fitzgerald] must've loved somebody like that in order to write about it, because I've never, even in Shakespeare, seen that depth of love written about."
This article originally ran in Vue's September 22, 2011 issue as a preview tied to Fricker's appearance at the Edmonton International Film Festival. The article's been slightly revised to fit this new context, and because I found a typo I didn't want you to see. What typo? Exactly.
Metro Cinema at the Garneau vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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