All My Puny Sorrows

Yoli (Alison Pill) is having something personal issues. She has teenage daughter Nora (Amybeth McNulty) and is getting divorced. Her sister Elf (Sarah Gadon) tried to kill herself. Lottie (Mare Winningham) is her mother. Jake (Donal Logue) is her father. Her beloved aunt Tina (Mimi Kuzyk) has a heart attack. The family is Canadian Mennonite.

Michael McGowan is the writer and director. It's adapted from a novel by Miriam Toews. It's obviously coming from personal experiences. It's not a movie of action or thrills or even plot points. It is a movie of personal drama. Alison Pill delivers a varied powerful performance. She has her cry moments, anger moments, and comedic moments which she is apt to do. One must be aware however that this movie is not a mover.

Sometimes letting go of grief is worse than the grief itself, for in letting go we risk losing this part of our true selves and our life experience. In other words, punting the ball down the field does not help in dealing with and defeating what ails the psyche. We must grapple with it and pull through.

Sisters Yoli and Elf struggle to deal with the depression and doubt that plagues their family and lives. Suffering seems to be inherited for them. Elf, a concert pianist, tried to kill herself and intends to try again. Yoli attempts to convince her sister to stay alive, but Yoli is not a model of healthy living herself and faces a nearly impossible task. Society conspires against the sisters too in that its focus is on shame and profits rather than truth and healing. There is hope for the sisters, and others in the same boat, in that life is always teaching lessons, and there is so much to learn, and so much that is beautiful.

All My Puny Sorrows is moody and emotional like its characters. There are sudden shifts in focus. For all the dark moments, there are others full of light and laughter. At times the actors struggle with the heavy themes around depression and suicide, but the authenticity of the story shines through such faults. I treasured the reasons for living that Yoli found in this heartfelt and candid story. "I used to wake up in the morning singing," said Yoli. If only we all could do more things like this. And quote more poetry. Awareness replacing ignorance, empathy for others over convenience, and truth before profit and fear. Watching Yoli, Elf, and their loved ones deal with the grief gives me hope for the world. We are supposed to help each other after all.

World premiere seen at the Toronto international film festival. Film based on a novel by Miriam Toews.

The film achieves its goal in displaying the multitude of effects that illness can take on a family and the very real endless concern that is required and rightfully present. The film does not censor or shy away from how difficult a challenge this is and does a good job showing how this trauma can impact generations of the family.

The performances are good with a very appropriate soundtrack.

Within a family filled with enlightening sturdyness, but also the dark sides of mental health family history. This film gave me a new view on the heavy gravity of the term depression, and that it is actually, or may be or could become a deadly disease to someone...sometime...yes a deadly one, why havent any top shrinks defined it as it is...to somebody...a deadly disease ...where medication wont take away the darkness and sadness that engulfs individuals from time to time and eventually never sees the light again, cause its a deadly disease...to somebody.

They say things are running in the family, and suicide may also be a term that may infect a family tree. Its a well acted, heavily and deep written screenplay about death and life, love and loss because the a-train to heaven took of far too early. A film that will bore some and excavate deep gashes in someones hearts, a tear will drop in someones commemorations of a lost partner, child or friend.

So throw yourselves into the purgatory where its rather cold and dark, a very realistic set of silverscreen emotions that the grumpy old man recommend if you need to.

You can't give this a bad review because it is heartfelt. But I have yet to see a film that even touches on this type of depression. Sadness is one thing, chimerical type depression is another. Alison Pill and her character carry the film.