{image1}The girls of "Marion Bridge" all have the sing-song dialect of Cape Breton -- where the film is set -- that comes from the Irish and Scottish immigrants that populated the area. But the starkly beautiful setting also is reflected in the melancholy trio of daughters: Agnes (Molly Parker), Louise (Stacy Smith) and Rose (Marguerite McNeil), who are reunited by circumstance.
Aimless Rose lives at home and is a slave to her TV. Louise is back at home because her marriage has faltered. Recovering alcoholic Agnes, who now lives in Toronto, returns to the family home in Sydney, because their mom is dying of cancer.
Agnes' return doesn't seem to please anyone -- including herself -- and slowly we find out why. The whole family had been torn apart by a terrible event that took place 15 or so years earlier and no one has escaped unscarred.
Their father, who is remarried and now stricken with alzheimer's, can seemingly never be forgiven. Can their mother escape her own feelings of guilt over what befell the family? Can the sisters ever overcome their individual problems to work on their collective ones?
Meanwhile, Agnes has connected with a local teenager named Joanie (Ellen Page), who is struggling with her identity and revels in the attention she gets from Agnes. She also senses that Agnes can really help her sort out her identity issues. (Forgive the broad-brush plot description, but we don't want to spoil anything, do we?)
Director Wiebke von Carolsfeld has crafted a wonderfully emotional and intimate film painted in broad strokes of desolation, elation, sadness, regret and hope. Daniel MacIvor's script is pitch perfect with hard-hitting dialogue and characters that are not just believable but endearing and who draw us in and make us care about them.
The cinematography matches, with alternately stunning and depressing settings, and it's impossible to fault the performance of any cast member.
"Marion Bridge" is the kind of movie that many will dismiss as a "chick flick," and that's too bad, because really, it's a "human flick," and one that is much needed during a cinema season distinguished mostly by geisers of fake blood and superficial stories.
"Marion Bridge" screens Sun., Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Landmark's Oriental Theatre as part of the Milwaukee International Film Festival and it's astonishing to consider that without the festival, this film would not have shown in Milwaukee.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
