I just watched a bit of Marion Bridge on TV. It’s a splendid, small film about three sisters dealing with their dying mother in Sydney, Nova Scotia. It’s based on a play by Daniel MacIvor, features the restrained performances I’ve come to associate with quality Canadian films. It also features Molly Parker, who always makes me stop and watch her.
In my mind, Marion Bridge forms a kind of troika of quality Maritime films along with New Waterford Girl and Wilby Wonderful. You could do worse than to watch those three films. That got me thinking about other good Maritime movies:
Certainly not The Shipping News. What am I missing?
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Margaret’s Museum has been one of my favourite movies for a long time. And Helena Bonham Carter… woot.
I think what you’re missing about The Shipping News was the fact that it was a really good book. Mostly everybody who liked the movie has also read the book. It gives, you know, context. And plot. And stuff. And no, not a great movie if you have to have read the book first…
There are even men who enjoy the Shipping News.
The book, that is.
The book was incredible. Really.
I tried to read the book, but gave up. I don’t recall exactly why, but I suspect it’s because I was bored.
The movie, I think, is indefensible. It’s slow-moving, over-acted and makes a mockery of all things Maritime-ish (as if they didn’t get enough of that) without intending to.
I’m from Sydney so I’ve been meaning to watch Marion Bridge. Actually, I haven’t seen any of the movies you mentioned, can you believe that? Well, except The Miners’ Museum, which gets a thumbs-up just for opening with the Rankins’ ‘Mist Covered Mountains’.
As for other Maritime movies, there’s also The Bay Boy, a film about Glace Bay (but filmed everywhere, including Sydney),which was directed by Daniel Petrie and starred Kiefer Sutherland, back in the 80s. There was another movie filmed in Sydney too, but I forget the name.
Don’t forget Men With Brooms.
She was unbelievably attractive in that flick.
Ray: Indeed she was. I should mention that I’m referring to her acting talent as much as her disarming looks. However, Men With Brooms was filmed in Ontario, and, to my recollection, takes place in an unidentified small Canadian town. I distinctly recall seeing a lack of ocean in that film. And why would you make a film in the Martimes without showing the sea?
Right. No Great Big Sea. Musta been distracted by her beauty. Damn.
Cannery Row.. Both book and movie. I know it is cheesy, but there’s still something attractive about it.
..hm, perhaps C.R. technically isn’t a ‘maritime’ -movie; it’s _not_ ‘at sea’, but kind of ‘beside the sea’, or something..
I’ll take The Shipping News over Men With Brooms any day. (I thought MWB was a terrible movie, and Paul Gross? Nice guy I’m sure, but he needs to get over himself.)
Never knew Shipping made a mockery of all things martime-ish, but I know nothing about the martimes, so perhaps it was just playing to my ill-informed preconceptions.
All the maritime movies listed above are fine selections but the one that stays with me most is a short film based on the Alistair MacLeod short story “In the Fall’ that I saw in a first-year film class. I tried to search Google for references or information about this movie, partly to point to in this post and partly to prove to myself that the film actually existed, and it was hard slogging to find anything. The closest I’ve come are a reference to it in biographical information about MacLeod mentioning the film was made in 1983, a post on a website by Garth Dyke documenting how he played the traumatic role of the young boy in the film (http://www.lemonlime.com/bio.htm) and an obscure catalogue listing of the movie (http://cfl.ccsd.k12.co.us/htbin/wwform/253?TEXT=R17349831-17352684-/CA/WWI770.HTM). So I will stick with my choice, it does exist, but damned if you’ll get a chance to see it. If you do though, be sure to check it out. With a running time of less than an hour the impact builds slowly and lingers long after the credits.
How about Rare Birds? William Hurt stars with Molly Parker; it is witty and understated and I found it has sat with me for quite some time afterwards.
Clearly the world needs a great movie set in PEI, that isn’t related to the Anne of Green Gables franchise. Since video production is actually one of the arts/tech industries that is still thriving on my home province, this is a possibility.
Magnum PEI anyone?