Films with domestic issues or family problems aren’t anything new in Hollywood. It’s an easy fallback for screenwriters. More often than not they’ve had issues like these in their own private lives. Even though this story takes place in Canada it’s very similar to what could have happened in America. The writer/ director Meredith Hama Brown brings an element of realism to this story that seemed to me may be a bit autobiographical. That makes the film a passion project for her.

Judith (Ally Maki) is a Japanese-Canadian woman who is married to Steve  (Luke Roberts). They have two adolescent daughters Emmy (Remy Marthaller) and Stephanie Nyha Huang Breitkreuz). Together the family goes to a retreat in Canada near Vancouver to sort out their differences. The parents go to various group meetings with other couples to discuss the ins and outs of their lives and what is causing them problems in their various households.

Maki’s character likes to read to her daughters before they go to sleep at night but this family isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The girls are a bit wild and they fight with each other. They are a little out of control and their mother seems to have lost her love for her husband. Despite the fact that the husband wants to work on the relationship for the sake of the children. The group meetings allow for more personal interactions with other members and the couple have another couple they befriend.

Maki plays this character very well. She shows genuine emotion in various scenes and she has a breakdown in one specific scene which was very well down. Other scenes of her yelling at the kids or arguing with her husband show she has a lot of range in this role. Maki is an actress I’m not as familiar with as others in the business but I’d be interested in seeing her in more things in the future.

I can see how a lot of families can relate to this story. The girls are stuck in the middle between their parents and the main couple just don’t seem like they love each other anymore. Domestic issues like these have been going on for hundreds of years. This one hit me a little hard because of the two little girls. They are going to be affected by these family problems for the rest of their lives.

There is one thing I thought was strange about this film. There were scenes where the little girl Emmy was left alone at times and a weird sound played like there was some impending danger on the horizon.  This was alluding to something later on in the movie so I was anxiously awaiting this to happen. When it happens it’s a bit hard to swallow. I was genuinely worried about what happened. That was a very good directing decision by Hama-Brown. She brought a sense of dread to this story in that regard.

There is one specific inciting event at a karaoke/pool bar that brings this story all the way full circle. Fighting between the girls and arguing between the parents at the bar is the straw that broke the camel’s back in this family. They all have issues they have to deal with and love is definitely in need for all of them. The direction and story bring this story to the forefront and it wasn’t always fun to watch. My own parents had issues and my brothers and I had to see this quite often caused issues with our upbringing.  I can see this story being one a lot of people could relate to no matter what country they are from. This was a solid movie with moody and atmospheric filmmaking by Hama-Brown. The story and acting were the strengths of the film.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen