ardala

A not-bad but not-great little personal drama film about a mother and daughter discovering their sexuality set against a wintery Canadian city backdrop. The three main actresses are good enough in their roles, though you can tell Trotter is by far the most experienced and gives the project some weight. The low budget and small scale works fine for such a feature, which is the first (and, to date, only) full length film from co-writer/producer/director team Kate Johnston and Shauna MacDonald. For the most part the film is competently made, despite occasional lapses in logic and interest. However, it often comes across as a vanity project for MacDonald, who also stars as the title character Tru, and who is more than once described as a "young woman" (MacDonald was in her 40s when she made the film) whom every other woman in the film, gay or otherwise, seems to find utterly irresistible. I'm not saying she isn't pretty or doesn't have any charm, but there are less desperate ways for actors to deal with the onset of middle age. However, the main thing that just screams "amateur hour" here is the number of times she and Johnston receive a screen credit. Including her actor billing, MacDonald is credited FOUR TIMES within two and a half minutes during the opening sequence alone. And not only do she and Johnston get credited as "Producers" but then as the end credits roll, they are credited again as "Executive Producers". MacDonald then gets additional credits in the end cast list and for "locations provided by..." making her name appear onscreen a total of SEVEN TIMES. Ladies, please....credit where credit's due, but there is such a thing as overkill. It's ridiculous and makes you look like giddy teenaged film students. The production (and your reputations as budding serious filmmakers) would have been better served by a simple all-in-one "Written, Produced and Directed by" credit and nothing more, with a single additional credit for MacDonald as cast member. The audience will not get nearly as excited as you do about your names constantly flashing up onscreen.

All in all, a noble though not essential entry into the LGBT film subgenre, but it could have been better had the creative duo it came from exhibited a little more finesse and a little less ego.