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Lifetime films tend to focus on standard narratives and characters: typically female, often slightly ridiculous or salacious, and usually drama that occurs in the domestic sphere.

With Murder at the Lighthouse, writer Shawn Riopelle tackles a quintessentially Lifetime subject – domestic abuse – albeit in an extremely grounded way. Or at least initially.

The film opens on the cusp of a storm. Jess (Skye Coyne) is a harried, desperately anxious woman who has recruited her friend Rory (Brandon Brooks) to sneak her across the Canadian border via the Great Lakes in his boat. The pronounced bruise on the side of her face and her fear about who and what Rory has told his brother (and anyone else for that matter) confirms that she’s on the run. The fact that she’s willing to drive a boat across a massive body of water during a lightning storm is a pretty significant indicator...

The era of the snide twenty-something feels like it’s been around too long, with snarky smartasses littering indie films, alt music, and just about every other tweet. Yet Max Thieriot has a reason to play his character in Foreverland with youthful, sarcastic edge: The 21-year-old Will is living with cystic fibrosis and has just suffered the death of a buddy with the same condition. Feeling for years that his demise is imminent, Will faces life with a grim hipster wit, Thieriot’s evenhanded performance more reliable and believable than the dialogue he’s given by neophyte screenwriter Shawn Riopelle....

Foreverland

Directed by Max McGuire

Written by Max McGuire and Shawn Riopelle

Canada, 2011

Listening to a Canadian movie related podcast recently (not Sound on Sight. Shocking, indeed), the hosts of the show agreed that the Canadian film industry lacks a certain panache, a certain individuality and, most importantly, the confidence required for it to stand proudly on its own two feet to impress local cinema goers and, it the best case scenarios, make some headway in the international markets. The lone exception, one that has lasted for so many years it might as well be considered a constant, is Québec’s output, but then again, that province has always done things a little differently than its anglophone compatriots. Save David Croneberg and perhaps Sarah Polley, the great Canadian English language filmmakers are far and few between. Sadly, Max Mcguire’s Foreverland only reinforces that stereotype and them some.

Will (Max Thieriot...